What Would You Do With A Tail Like This?

Written & Illustrated by: Steve Jenkins and Robin Page

What an interesting book! This book asks readers questions as in the title of the story. On the page asking about the tails, the illustrations show up-close pictures of different animals' tails. On the next page, the illustrations show each of the animals with a description of how they use their tails. Other questions ask about animals' noses, ears, eyes, feet, and mouths. I've read this book to my students and they LOVE the pages that show just the body parts of the animals because they like to guess which animal the part belongs to. At the end of the book, the authors give a brief description of each animal in the story. The descriptions are very kid-friendly and easy to understand.

Something else that's interesting about the text is that it is written shaped like the animals. For example, after the question, "What would you do with a nose like this," the description on the next page of the alligator states, "If you're an alligator, you breathe through your nose while hiding in the water." The alligator's body is straight as a stick and the text is straight from left to right just like the alligator's body. Sometimes the reader has to turn the book side-ways to read. Very cool!

The illustrations are wonderful and very deserving of the Caldecott Medal the book won. The illustrations are cut-paper collage. The background is white throughout the entire book and this really gives focus to the animals. On the pages of the body parts illustrations, they are very big and makes the reader want to turn the page to see what part belongs to who.

This is a beautifully illustrated book which gives kid-friendly facts about wild animals. My kindergartners loved it and still want to "read" it whenever they have the chance!