Get set for a rollicking, rip-roaring race as a crowd of competitive contestants attempt to cross the finish line ahead of a cheetah.

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.

Originally published: Morton Grove, Ill.: Albert Whitman, 1997.

This charming autobiographical tale from Princess Michael of Kent tells of a girl growing up and the incredible bond that can exist between people and animals. Beautifully written by a natural storyteller and packed with fabulous photographs, it is also a wonderful portrait of Africa - the cheetah version of Born Free - and will delight readers worldwide. In the early 1960s, Marie Christine von Reibnitz (who would later become HRH Princess Michael of Kent) lived with her father on his farm in Mozambique. Then just a teenager, Princess Michael was entranced by the African landscape, by the wildlife and by the people she met. It was one of the happiest times of her life and she recounts that it was an orphaned cheetah cub (called Tess) who played a huge part in making it so. The relationship between the young Princess Michael and Tess, whom she hand-reared and later successfully released into the wild having trained her to hunt and survive on her own, will touch every reader's heart. The events of that period have remained with Princess Michael for the rest of her life and in A Cheetah's Tale she recalls not just the tale of Tess, but also the realities of life in Africa: from waking up in the middle of the night to find her father had just shot a lioness that was about to eat her to discovering a deadly Black Mamba curled up inside the loo! Tess was the inspiration for Princess Michael's lifelong interest in cheetah conservation and the epilogue covers some of her work as Patron of the Endangered Species Centre in South Africa and of the Cheetah Conservation Fund in Namibia.

The true, heart-warming story of how a reluctant City trader left a life of champagne and bonuses to follow his dream of rescuing animals and setting up a wildlife sanctuary. Simon Cowell always wanted to be a vet. Instead he ended up as a wealthy commodities trader. But with a love of nature and animals, he could never quite subscribe to the 'greed is good' mantra which rung out through the trading halls of the City of London. While his colleagues quaffed champagne and blew their bonuses on designer gear, Simon set up a wildlife sanctuary in the grounds of his stockbroker belt home. At 42, having suffered two nervous breakdowns, he finally left his job. That's when his life began. Wild Life is the story of his remarkable journey from reluctant City swinger to environmental crusader, meeting some of the some of the cute and cuddly creatures that have touched his heart along the way. Often hilarious, sometimes harrowing and always insightful, Simon's story is one man's life-long mission to redress the damage man has done to the environment - with boozing, a divorce and some bad behaviour along the way.