What Do You Do With a Tail Like This?

 

Title:What Do You Do with a Tail Like This?

Authors/Illustrators:Steve Jenkins & Robin Page

Published By:Houghton Mifflin Company

          "What Do You Do with a Tail Like This?" is a Caldecott honor book by Steve Jenkins and Robin Page. This beautifully illustrated picture book peaked my interest from the first time I picked it up. The cover was of just a tail but if you turn the book over the rest of the lizard is wrapped around the back of the book.  It first shows a close-up picture of the body parts (nose, ears, tail, eyes, feet and mouth) and the "what do you do with " question. When turning the page, you can see the entire animals and find out how these animals use their body parts. I think beginning readers will enjoy this guessing book and learn interesting facts about how animals use different body parts for other then just the familiar things we know.

          I had never read or even heard of this book until now. I thought it was a cute book. As a teacher, I could use a book with any age group. I think the illustrations in this book are remarkable. It looks as though the animals are real and you could touch the book and be touching the animals. I did find out that Jenkins uses cut-paper collages, which enables the audience to see the different textures of the animals. For example, the elephant's trunk looks rough and rigid much as it would if you were standing there looking at a real elephant. I think it is remarkable that Steve Jenkins goes all over the world looking for the different colors and types of paper. The pages still have some white so that you can see the details with the pictures.  By doing this I think it really help keep the student's attention. I also like how each illustration ties in with the text.
           I think this book could be used for any grade but would probably be more appreciated from Kindergarten up to the third grade. This book would be great to use when studying different types of animals. The last four pages that tell more information about the animals could be very informative for the students. For kindergarten I could use this book to teach how to ask a question and then give an appropriate response. Overall, I enjoyed this book and will use it one day in my classroom.