Who Has This Tail?

September 1, 2012
Hulbert and Brooks' second pairing (Who Has These Feet?, 2011) sets readers to identifying animals by their tails and learning how those tails help them adapt. The titular question is paired with a two-page close-up of an animal tail. The page turn reveals the entire animal in its habitat, the two-sentence text naming the animal and telling how it uses its tail: "A horse has this tail. A horse uses its tail to flick away flies." But the horse is the most common of the animals presented. The rest will be a challenge, perhaps even for parents, whose toddlers may not be familiar with the physical characteristics of a beaver, a spider monkey, a rattlesnake, a scorpion, a gerbil, a shark, an Artic fox or a peacock. Making it even more challenging is the fact that the tails are shown in isolation against a white background, with nothing to give kids a clue as to size, perspective or habitat. While the final gatefold is rather uninspiring--just a larger, collagelike picture of all the animals that have been seen previously--the flaps of the gatefold are a checkerboard of animal heads and tails against brightly colored backgrounds, allowing for a great matching game. Brooks' watercolor animals are realistic without being frightening, the colors nicely echoing those found in their habitats. A great challenge for kids who have already mastered the basic pets and farm animals. (Informational picture book. 3-7)

COPYRIGHT(2012) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

January 1, 2013

PreS-Gr 2-Expanding on the concept presented in Who Has These Feet? (Holt, 2011), this anatomical guessing game, illustrated in soft watercolors, allows readers to try to connect a tail to the correct animal. With a large font and generous white space, the opening spread for each animal asks, "Who has this tail?" while a large, detailed illustration shows only the tail in question. A page turn reveals the answer and a full-bleed spread of the animal in its habitat along with a fact about how it uses its tail. Various animals are featured, including a rattlesnake, a beaver, a spider monkey, and a horse, but all are a challenge to guess out of context on the white backgrounds. The concise information does a nice job of demonstrating the many different functions a tail can serve-a gerbil uses it for balance, while an Arctic fox uses it to stay warm. The book closes with a summarizing gatefold matching all the animals with their tails.-Julie Roach, Cambridge Public Library, MA

Copyright 2013 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.