What's Faster Than a Speeding Cheetah?

by Robert E. Wells, Robert E. Wells (Illustrator)

Overview

What's faster than a cheetah?—no animal on earth can run faster. But a peregrine falcon can swoop faster than a cheetah can run. And the falcon can't compare to an airplane, a rocket, or the speed of light. Lively text and watercolors will make children laugh while they learn all about speed.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780807593523
Publisher:	Whitman, Albert & Company
Publication date:	01/01/1997
Series:	Wells of Knowledge Science Series
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	32
Lexile:	AD740L (what's this?)
File size:	9 MB
Age Range:	7 - 10 Years

About the Author

Robert E. Wells is the author and illustrator of many award-winning science books for children, including Can You Count to a Googol? and Why Do Elephants Need the Sun?. He lives with his wife in Washington.

Read an Excerpt

What's Faster Than a Speeding Cheetah?

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By Robert E. Wells

ALBERT WHITMAN & Company

Copyright © 1997 Robert E. Wells
All rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-0-8075-2281-3

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CHAPTER 1

You may very well be fast on your feet. But if you want to WIN races, never race a CHEETAH-or even an OSTRICH, for that matter.

If you ran very hard, you might reach a speed of 15 miles per hour. That's not nearly fast enough to keep up with an ostrich. With a top skeed of about 45 miles per hour, an ostrich is the world's fastest 2-legged runner.

But the cheetah will certainly be way out in front. A cheetah can reach a speed of about 70 miles per hour-MORE THAN A MILE A MINUTE! No animal on EARTH can run faster than that!

But a cheetah can't run nearly as fast as a PEREGRINE FALCON can SWOOP!

A peregrine falcon can dive through the sky at about 200 miles per hour! That's 3 times as fast as a car zooming along a high way!

A peregrine falcon is truly a SUPER SWOOPER. It can dive faster than any creature can run.

(Continues...)

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Excerpted from What's Faster Than a Speeding Cheetah? by Robert E. Wells. Copyright © 1997 Robert E. Wells. Excerpted by permission of ALBERT WHITMAN & Company.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

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Editorial Reviews

K-Gr 3A concept book about speed that will have difficulty finding an audience. The material is more suited to older readers, but the childlike quality of the illustrations will keep them at bay. Younger children will be attracted to the lively cartoon art and format, but will have a difficult time comprehending such comparisons as a jet engine flying faster than the speed of sound or sound waves traveling 660 miles per hour. Wells does provide plenty of information on "fast things," starting off by comparing the speed of an ostrich to that of a child. The concept is an interesting one, but the presentation may be problematic.Denise Furgione, Franklin Township Public Library, NJ

School Library Journal

Fast, faster, fastest! Kids infatuated with speed will love this book of comparisons of things that move like greased lightning. The book starts out by comparing a fast human pace with that of an ostrich (45 mph) and a cheetah (70 mph), and accelerates from there. The animal kingdom is quickly outraced by machines, machines are in turn put to shame by meteorites, and a beam of light proves the ultimate speedster. A chart compares how long each creature or object would take to get to the moon—a good exercise in understanding comparisons, as well as chart- reading. The illustrations are active and bright, occasionally switching from horizontal layouts to vertical ones. Turning the book on its side slows things down a bit, but readers will find that this book on speed has a momentum all its own.

Kirkus Reviews

CBC/IRA Children's Choices for 1998
Best Children's Books of the Year 1998, Bank Street College

"A chart compares how long each creature or object would take to get to the moon—a good exercise in understanding comparisons, as well as chart-reading. The illustrations are active and bright."—Kirkus Reviews

"Always in sync with the way children think, Wells takes each concept and makes it concrete, vivid, and understandable as he takes it to its logical conclusion. Even better, the illustrations make it all fun, taking the characters on an improbable journey through space at ever-accelerating speeds. A trip children won't want to miss."—Booklist

"The bright pen and acrylic illustrations add humor to the simple text…This book will be very useful for teachers and parents when talking about speed with young learners."—Children's Literature

From the Publisher