Wednesday, January 30, 2008

What Do You Do With a Tail Like This?


Author/Illustrator: Steve Jenkins and Robin Page
Publisher and Date: Houghton Mifflin Company 2003
Genre: Picture Book, Informational
Age Range: K-2
Awards: Caldecott Honor Book

Summary:This picture book introduces the reader to a variety of animals. Each animal has a unique characteristic that is specific to the nose, ears, tail, eyes, feet, or mouth. These characteristics are directly related to their every day lives and to survival. A tthe back of the book, more detailed information is given on each of the animals mentioned throughout the book.

Response: I really enjoyed the paper collage technique used for the pictures of the animals. The varied directions of the etext also caught my attention. It guided your eyes toward the animal it was describing and in some cases followed the shape of the animal. I think children would enjoy it because it isn't your typical right to left text all the way through. the extra cacutal information at the back is helpful for learning more about an animal the reader may have found interest in.

Teaching Ideas: This book could be tied in to a lesson about the five senses. You could encourage students to find ways the animals and humans use the same senses. For example a bat uses his ears to hear the echoes of the sounds he makes and the bush baby has larger eyes to see at night while ours are smaller in relation to our bodies because people are not nocturnal. To get children up and moving around the classroom, you could create an activity where each child can act out an animal from the book, acting out the characteristic they read about.

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