What Do You Do With A Tail Like This?

This Caldecott Honor Book is one of a kind. It first gives a part of animals like their noses, ears, tails, eyes, mouths, or feet and then on the next page describes what they use them for. For example, on one of the first pages it shows an elephant’s trunk. It asks the question, “What do you do with a nose like that?” On the next page, it shows the elephant and it using his trunk to give itself a bath. It does this for noses, ears, tails, eyes, mouths, and feet. This can show students how animals use their different body parts to defend themselves and help them to survive. For the audience, this informational text provides so much information in a very simple way. It is not complex and allows you to make connections throughout the entire text. In the back of the picture book, the author included information about every animal that was written about. It gives some background information on the animal and more information about the body part and what they use it for.

This is another great book that I would definitely want to use in my classroom one day. I feel that this text could be use with lower and upper elementary students. For lower elementary students, this book could be used when learning about different animals. I think lower elementary students would enjoy this book in a classroom library. The pictures are fantastic in this book and students can learn a lot about different animals too. Steve Jenkins and Robin Page do an excellent job of using animals that are not traditional animals that we think of like a lion, tiger, or bear. They use animals like a platypus, hyena, pelican, or a star-nosed mole. These animals might make the students want to learn more because they are ones that most would not know a lot about. This book would work with upper elementary students because you can use it to look at adaptations of animals. For example, on one of the pages it looks at how the horned lizard squirts blood from its eyes. Students could look up this characteristic of this animal and find out why they do this. This informational text would be a great resource for students to use and can jump-start them into finding more information out. Steve Jenkins and Robin Page do a great job of making information fun and exciting for their audience to read.

What Do You Do With A Tail Like This?

Author: Steve Jenkins

Illustrator: Robin Page

Year Published: 2003