WHAT DO YOU DO WITH A TAIL LIKE THIS?

1. BIBLIOGRAPHY:
Jenkins, Steve. 2003. WHAT DO YOU DO WITH A TAIL LIKE THIS? Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin. ISBN 0618256288

2. PLOT SUMMARY:
Steve Jenkins goes through and describes each sense and informs about different types of animals. He says what do you do with eyes like these and goes on to show and describe different types of animals that use their eyes for different things. You are able to explore the many amazing things animals can do with their ears, eyes, mouths, noses, feet, and tails in this interactive guessing book.

Beautifully illustrated with Jenkins's and Page's unique cut-paper collages, What Do You Do with a Tail Like This? poses questions that readers can answer by turning the page to discover what animals such as a giraffe, a chameleon, a gecko, and many other fascinating creatures do with their amazing body parts. The papers were perfect colors and even textures. You can tell some were cut and some were torn or wrinkled to get that perfect look.

3. CRITICAL ANALYSIS:
WHAT DO YOU DO WITH A TAIL LIKE THIS? is a great simple text book to use with any grade level. The text is big and readable and gives facts that do not overload the young reader. The reader can see the crinkles in the paper and the velvet-like quality in some of them. I also really liked how it went through as a picture book and at the end of the book it ended up with definitions and a little background on each animal in the book. This was a great book, especially when it can be integrated into other subject areas, such as Science and Art.

4. REVIEW EXCERPT(S):
* Starred review in BOOKLIST: "Jenkins' handsome paper-cut collages are both lovely and anatomically informative, and their white background helps emphasize the particular feature, be it the bush baby's lustrous, liquid-brown eyes or the skunk's fuzzy tail. This is a striking, thoughtfully created book with intriguing facts made more memorable through dynamic art."
* Starred review in SCHOOL LIBRARY JOURNAL: "Jenkins, this time in collaboration with his wife, has created yet another eye-opening book. Children will learn that lizards can completely break off their tail as a defense and that it will grow back. And, they'll find out that crickets' ears are on their knees."

5. CONNECTIONS:
*Integrate into a Science class discussing animals and have the students pick one of the animals in the book they found interesting and have them do a research on it. *Integrate into an Art lesson, in which the students would create a collage with the fabulous pictures from the book.
*Jenkins has another book similar to this called, WHAT DO YOU DO WHEN SOMETHING WANTS TO EAT YOU? This book also uses the same cut and paste illustration techniques, the two-page approach: identifying the animal on one page and then describes the defense mechanism on the next.
Jenkins, Steve. 2001. WHAT DO YOU DO WHEN SOMETHING WANTS TO EAT YOU? Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin. ISBN 0618152431.