Nonfiction: What Do You Do With a Tail Like This?

What Do You Do With a Tail Like This?
By Steve Jenkins and Robin Page

Jenkins, Steve, and Robin Page. What Do You Do with a Tail Like This? Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin, 2003. 9780618256288

Plot Summary

Have you ever wondered what an animals nose is used for? Or perhaps its ears, tail, eyes, feet, or mouth? Each animals' features are unique and can be used for many things, such as digging in the mud with their nose, "seeing" with their ears, stinging with their tail, look two ways at once with their eyes, leaping from ledge to ledge with their feet, or swallowing eggs larger than their heads! Each feature on each animal has a special purpose. So, "what do you do with a tail like this?"

Analysis

Steve Jenkins and Robin Page have pieced together facts and illustrations to bring the world of animals to readers. Using cut-paper collages to create each unique illustration, Jenkins and Page have answered some of the burning questions that readers might have about animals. The repeated question, "What do you do with a ___ like this?" accompanied by illustrations allows readers to pause before turning the page and attempt to answer the question themselves. This element adds a fun, interactive game-like quality to this book. Readers will enjoy studying the illustrations before turning the page to see if they guessed correctly. Jenkins and Page have included additional notes, with include postage stamp-sized pictures of each animal and a paragraph explaining each animal's adaptation. The notes are divided into sections: noses, ears, tails, eyes, feet, and mouths.

This informational book is organized in such a way that encourages children to explore each feature of the animals at their own pace in their own way. The only guidance that the book suggests is that readers take the time to guess the function of each feature before turning the page to check their answers. Including only a simple sentence with each animal allows readers to focus on the illustrations. If they wish to learn more, they can read the notes included at the back. This is particularly enjoyable because it gives the information in a succinct way. Younger readers will be able to learn something new, and older readers will enjoy reading the notes to learn even more. Readers of all ages will enjoy flipping the pages after each guess and studying the details of each illustration to see exactly how each animal uses their unique adaptations to survive.

One reviewer from Kirkus Reviews claimed, "Capped by a systematic appendix furnishing more, and often arresting, details—“A humpback whale can be 50 feet long and weigh a ton per foot”—this array of wide eyes and open mouths will definitely have viewers responding with wide eyes and open mouths of their own."

“WHAT DO YOU DO WITH A TAIL LIKE THIS?,” March 24, 2003. https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/steve-jenkins/what-do-you-do-with-a-tail-like-this/. 

Awards

Caldecott Honor Medal - 2004

Connections

This book would make an excellent story time, where teachers or librarians can encourage children to guess what each feature is used for. Students can also try creating their own creature with a unique feature and explain how that feature helps with its survival.

Other notable nonfiction animal books:

Wenzel, Brendan. Hello Hello. 9781452150147

Montgomery, Sy: Becoming a Good Creature. 9780358252108

Zommer, Yuval: The Big Book of the Blue. 9780500651193