"What Do You Do With a Tail like This?"

Week 8: Non-fiction Reflection

Jenkins, S., & Page, R. (2003). What do you do with a tail like this? New York: Houghton Mifflin.

 

 

 

Plot Summary:

             “What Do You Do with a Tail like This?” is a Caldecott Award winning non-fiction informational picture book that examines how different animals use their noses, ears, tails, eyes, mouths, and feet.  This story would be categorized as biological science since it deals with living organisms.  The structure of the book is organized to first peek the curiosity of the reader.  The first page shows all the different noses of animals that are in the story and the reader is asked, “What do you do with a nose like this?”  This immediately draws the attention of the reader and leads you to read on.  From there each page takes you through the explanation of how each animal uses the same body part for many different things.  For example, an elephant uses his nose to give himself a bath, where a platypus uses his nose to dig in the mud.  This wonderful book teaches you things that you might know about the uses of the animals’ different body parts.  The book includes a four page picture dictionary with additional information on each animal that was discussed in the book.

            The book level of “What Do You Do with a Tail like This” is 3.0.  This would be a great book to use during a science lesson on what makes animals different from each other.  The standard is as follows: SC-E-3.1.3 Each plant or animal has structures that serve different functions in growth, survival, and reproduction.  For example, humans have distinct body structures for walking, holding, seeing, and talking.

Questions: How are some of the adaptations of the animals like those of humans?