What Do You Do With a Tail Like This?
Written and illustrated by Steve Jenkins and Robin Page
Published by Houghton Mifflin in NY in 2003
Genre: Informational Text
Age: grades K-3
Award: Caldecott Honor Book
Summary: This book is not a traditional story, perse, but is more of a quirky way to relate information about for what certain parts of animals' bodies are used. This book has two pages each about noses, ears, tails, eyes, feet, and mouths. The first page shows pictures of these parts of different animals and lets children guess what animal it could be from until the next page when the pictures are of whole animals and the text details what they do with their respective body parts. The last several pages of the work given encyclopedia-like information about each of the animals in the book to further explain their use of these body parts.
Response: The first thing that caught my attention regarding this book was the title. I cannot imagine how someone could not want to read a book with a title such as this! Fortunately, the title is not the only grand thing about this work.
The artistic media (collage art) of each animal, and the texture created by this form of art are remarkable. There is a lot of white space on the pages, but that allows the rich colors from the collage to be more striking. Furthermore, the words on several pages are integrated with the artwork in the book and flow well with the illustrations.
I love the way that the first page of each new body part's introduction allows readers to guess what the animal could be. The author and illustrator used page turns as a means of creating suspense.
Due to the layout of the piece and the humor, the information is woven into the book. This makes learning seem less like learning for readers.
The information at the end of the book is great for expanding one's knowledge about animals and for teachers to share more information with their classes.
Teacher Connections: Teachers could do a health lesson about parts of the body: arms, legs, heads, noses, ears, etc. and then read this book about animals.
Students could make a Venn Diagram about what they use their body parts for and how that is different or similar to animals.
Students could chose one animal to concentrate on or use a different animal for each body part.
Written and illustrated by Steve Jenkins and Robin Page
Published by Houghton Mifflin in NY in 2003
Genre: Informational Text
Age: grades K-3
Award: Caldecott Honor Book
Summary: This book is not a traditional story, perse, but is more of a quirky way to relate information about for what certain parts of animals' bodies are used. This book has two pages each about noses, ears, tails, eyes, feet, and mouths. The first page shows pictures of these parts of different animals and lets children guess what animal it could be from until the next page when the pictures are of whole animals and the text details what they do with their respective body parts. The last several pages of the work given encyclopedia-like information about each of the animals in the book to further explain their use of these body parts.
Response: The first thing that caught my attention regarding this book was the title. I cannot imagine how someone could not want to read a book with a title such as this! Fortunately, the title is not the only grand thing about this work.
The artistic media (collage art) of each animal, and the texture created by this form of art are remarkable. There is a lot of white space on the pages, but that allows the rich colors from the collage to be more striking. Furthermore, the words on several pages are integrated with the artwork in the book and flow well with the illustrations.
I love the way that the first page of each new body part's introduction allows readers to guess what the animal could be. The author and illustrator used page turns as a means of creating suspense.
Due to the layout of the piece and the humor, the information is woven into the book. This makes learning seem less like learning for readers.
The information at the end of the book is great for expanding one's knowledge about animals and for teachers to share more information with their classes.
Teacher Connections: Teachers could do a health lesson about parts of the body: arms, legs, heads, noses, ears, etc. and then read this book about animals.
Students could make a Venn Diagram about what they use their body parts for and how that is different or similar to animals.
Students could chose one animal to concentrate on or use a different animal for each body part.
(Image retrieved from http://www.larl.org/kids/images/tail.jpg on 19 April 2008)
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