Cheetah: Speed Demon! Book

Cheetah: speed demon! by Natalie Lunis is an action-packed informational text about the fastest animal on the planet. The book does a great job of discussing the biological motivations behind the cheetah's speed, and how its overall biological makeup supports its survival. This book not only does a great job of portraying the cheetah as a strong, interesting animal, but also shows its enemies and some of their bully-like behavior. Other topics addressed include the cheetah's main habitat, normal prey, and the great lengths that some cheetahs will go in order to protect their cubs.

Lunis does a great job with vocabulary development throughout this book by exposing children to elevated vocabulary words in bold, such as prey, sprinter, stride. Through context clues, students can figure out their meanings but if not, there is a glossary conveniently located in the back of the book to help them figure things out. Additionally, Lunis gives a list of other books(as well as an online resource) that has more information about cheetahs. In my classroom I would have students visit this online resource to create a graphic organizer of information about the cheetah, and perhaps follow that up by having them present a culminating project about what they found the most interesting about the cheetah.

I'm not usually a fan of informational texts but this one was very interesting. Lunis goes far beyond stating unrelated facts about the cheetah; in fact, the book almost reads like a narrative. Vivid images support this feel and give life to the many interesting facts taught about the cheetah. I would highly recommend this book and I am glad I read it.