What Do You Do with a Tail Like This?

In a pleasantly inviting voice, narrator James Naughton engages children with a series of questions and answers about the amazing things animals can do with various parts of their bodies. Turning the pages of this attractive picture book (which has beautiful, realistic paper cuts by illustrator Jenkins), children will learn about a variety of noses, ears, tails, eyes, feet, and mouths put to a wide array of specialized uses. As sprightly background music moves the book along, listeners will be absorbed by a world where noses can dig and eyes squirt blood, and will find this natural world both strange--and strangely beautiful--in its design. The book includes several pages of additional facts on the animals presented, sure to interest a wide audience. J.C.G. (c) AudioFile 2009, Portland, Maine

March 24, 2003
Steve Jenkins contributes another artistically wrought, imaginatively conceived look at the natural world. What Do You Do with a Tail Like This? by Jenkins and wife Robin Page, stages a guessing game. Illustrated with Jenkins's trademark cut-paper art, one spread will show animals' tails (or noses, ears, etc.) as text asks variations of the titular question; turn the page, and the whole bodies of the animals are shown as answers are supplied ("If you're a lizard, you break off your tail to get away"; "If you're a scorpion, your tail can give a nasty sting"). Four pages of illustrated endnotes deliver meaty profiles of the 30 featured creatures.