Title: What Do You Do With a Tail Like This?
Author: Steve Jenkins and Robin Page
Illustrator: Steve Jenkins and Robin Page
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Company
Year of Publication: 2003
Genre: Nonfiction
Horn Book or Kirkus Reviews Rating: Horn Book- 3, Kirkus Starred Review
Summary: What Do You Do With a Tail Like This? is a great book to learn about a variety of animals and how they use their senses in different ways. This book, with close up illustrations of the animal's eyes, ears, and noses, leaves the reader wondering how the animal uses their senses.
Summary of Professional Reviews: The Horn Book Guide enjoyed the book's cut-paper collages of the animals. The reader is asked a question such as, "what would you do with a tail like this," and the answers are revealed on the next page. The end of the book includes detailed information about all the animals portrayed in the book.
Review By Lauren Miller: The illustrations in this book are phenomenal. Like Kirkus Reviews, I also enjoyed the cut-paper collages. They were very realistic and portrayed every animal's features. The format of the text kept me intrigued as a reader. The first page would consist of a question such as, "what would you do with a nose like this?" The page would only show close up illustrations of different animal noses. The following page would describe how every animal uses their nose in a different way. The text was not written from top to bottom in a straight line. It wrapped around the specific animal or was sideways. I found this to be a very effective technique that kept each page fresh and exciting. The book ended with specific information on each animal portrayed in the book.
This book would be useful when teaching:
Author: Steve Jenkins and Robin Page
Illustrator: Steve Jenkins and Robin Page
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Company
Year of Publication: 2003
Genre: Nonfiction
Horn Book or Kirkus Reviews Rating: Horn Book- 3, Kirkus Starred Review
Summary: What Do You Do With a Tail Like This? is a great book to learn about a variety of animals and how they use their senses in different ways. This book, with close up illustrations of the animal's eyes, ears, and noses, leaves the reader wondering how the animal uses their senses.
Summary of Professional Reviews: The Horn Book Guide enjoyed the book's cut-paper collages of the animals. The reader is asked a question such as, "what would you do with a tail like this," and the answers are revealed on the next page. The end of the book includes detailed information about all the animals portrayed in the book.
Review By Lauren Miller: The illustrations in this book are phenomenal. Like Kirkus Reviews, I also enjoyed the cut-paper collages. They were very realistic and portrayed every animal's features. The format of the text kept me intrigued as a reader. The first page would consist of a question such as, "what would you do with a nose like this?" The page would only show close up illustrations of different animal noses. The following page would describe how every animal uses their nose in a different way. The text was not written from top to bottom in a straight line. It wrapped around the specific animal or was sideways. I found this to be a very effective technique that kept each page fresh and exciting. The book ended with specific information on each animal portrayed in the book.
This book would be useful when teaching:
- about the five senses in a science class. This book would be a great way to get the students to see how we normally think our senses work, but they can be used differently in different animals.
- about different animals. The students could each pick an animal to describe. They could do a venn diagram to explain the differences between the animals they saw in the book. They could also create a report about a specific animal of their choice.