What Do You Do With a Tail Like This?

BIBLIOGRAPHY

            Jenkins, Steve and Robin Page. 2003. What Do You Do With a Tail Like This?. Ill. by Steve Jenkins. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company. ISBN 9780618800452

PLOT SUMMARY

What Do You Do With a Tail Like This? by Steve Jenkins and Robin Page is an entertaining and informative book about animals. The book is arranged in a way that creates suspense and excitement for the reader. Illustrations of various parts of an animal’s body, like feet, eyes, or ears are accompanied by a question, like “What do you do with eyes like these?” The reader then flips the page and sees a full size image of the animal accompanied by a quick fact about how the animal uses a particular part of his body. Jenkins and Page discuss 30 different animals, from scorpions to monkeys and how these animals use their body parts in unique ways. The question and answer format of this book will keep children interested until the very end and will likely stimulate a lively discussion about animals.

CRITICAL ANALYSIS

Steve Jenkins is an award-winning author of children’s non-fiction books. In What Do You Do With a Tail Like This? Jenkins and Page have created a fun and engaging concept book about animals. The book follows a clear pattern, which is a general question about an animal’s body part followed by a more specific answer about a particular animal. The short questions and the way that the illustrations are arranged will pique young children’s interest. Children will enjoy trying to guess which animal the body part belongs to and how the animal uses that particular part. 

Jenkins’ collage illustrations are vibrant, varied, and accurately depict the various animals in the story. Illustrations alternate between showing a portion of the animals’ body to revealing the whole animal with accompanying facts. The back of the book includes a detailed definition and description of the animals mentioned. 

Sharing What Do You Do With a Tail Like This? is a great way to introduce young children to informational books. The illustrations and minimal text help young children focus on the information presented and encourage curiosity and interaction. The facts and animal descriptions at the end of the book encourage further study about animals.

REVIEW EXCERPTS

THE BULLETIN OF THE CENTER FOR CHILDREN’S BOOKS: “With some kind of critter for everyone, this will be useful for entry-level natural history.”

LIBRARY MEDIA CONNECTION, 2004: “This wonderfully creative and well-designed book will be fun for early readers who enjoy animals.”

BOOKLIST, 2003: “This is a striking, thoughtfully created book with intriguing facts made more memorable through dynamic art.”

AWARDS

*Charlotte Zolotow Award, 2004

*Randolph Caldecott Medal, 2004 Honor Book

CONNECTIONS

*Discuss the information children found most surprising. Then have students nominate and vote for the animal they would like to learn more about. Create a follow up lesson about the chosen animal.

*Give the children art supplies and ask them to create a picture of their favorite animal from the story.

*Share other books by Steve Jenkins, like:

• What Do You Do When Something Wants to Eat You?
• Biggest, Strongest, Fastest
• Never Smile at a Monkey: And 17 Other Important Things to Remember