What Do You Do With a Tail Like This?

1. Bibliography

Jenkins, Steve & Page, Robin. 2003. WHAT DO YOU DO WITH A TAIL LIKE THIS? Boston: Houghton Mifflin. ISBN 0-618-25628-8

2. Summary

What would you do with a nose like an elephant or feet like a gecko? Enter the animal world and explore how lizards squirt blood from their eyes, and crickets have ears on their knees. This book explores some strange tails, eyes, noses, ears, feet, and tails in the animal kingdom. There is a picture glossary at the back shows each animal again with an informative note elaborating on the creature's special adaptation.

3. Critical Analysis

This book will interest any animal lover through its vibrant paper-cut collages jump, crawl and swim off the page. Curiosity is peaked with a double-page spread gives the reader a snippet of an animal part from five different creatures. Each creature is then revealed on the following page along with what they do with that body part. If you still want to know more just look in the back of the book for interesting facts and information about each animal. The text of the book is anatomically informative, and the white background helps emphasize the particular feature in the illustrations. The provocative questions and answers of the text are supported by attention grabbing, stunning collage illustrations that are sure to get anyone interested in animals.

4. Awards and Review Excerpts

- AWARDS -

Charlotte Zolotow Award, 2004 Highly Commended United States
Garden State Children's Book Award, 2006 Winner Non-Fiction United States
Randolph Caldecott Medal, 2004 Honor Book United States

- REVIEW EXCERPTS -

CHILDREN’S LITERATURE review: “Edges manage to capture hair, fur, feathers, carapaces, exoskeletons, and the different textures of an animal's outside with uncannily accurate depictions. This is one of those cases where collage seems just right for the subject and its many nuances. The informational aspect of the book is further enhanced with a substantive paragraph, at the book's conclusion, of information about each of the thirty animals mentioned.”

KIRKUS review: “Visual surprises abound: a field cricket's ears are actually on its legs; a horned lizard can (and does, here) squirt blood from its eyes as a defense mechanism; in an ingenious use of page design, a five-lined skink's breakable tail enters and leaves the center gutter at different points. 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.”

5. Connections

Use in science to discuss adaptations

Create your own “What would you do with…” featuring different animals

Explore the uses of the 5 senses

Use to discuss similarities and differences between creatures

Read other books by Jenkins such as Slap, Squeak, and Scatter: How Animals

Communicate

We Are The Ship: The Story of Negro League Baseball

1. Bibliography

Nelson, Kadir. 2008. WE ARE THE SHIP: THE STORY OF NEGRO LEAGUE BASEBALL. New York: Jump at the Sun/Disney Hyperion. ISBN 0-7868-0832-2

2. Summary

Using an "Everyman" player as his narrator, Kadir Nelson tells the story of Negro League baseball from its beginnings in the 1920s through the decline after Jackie Robinson crossed over to the majors in 1947. Each chapter presents players, teams, locations, owners, discrimination faced by the teams, and how the Negro League players’ style of play changed the game of baseball. The last chapter, “Extra Innings,” explains why the Negro Leagues ended, and its importance in baseball and American history. An index, a bibliography, and author’s note, and source notes are also included.

3. Critical Analysis

Kadir Nelson tells this story from the vantage point of an unnamed narrator; it reads like an old-timer reliving his memories of the baseball greats with his grandchildren. The “collective we” of the first person text makes the reader feel as if an old-time ballplayer were speaking directly to him. Each chapter deals with an important aspect of the Negro league player’s challenges and successes and is told with such passion that the reader feels as though they are standing on the playing field with the heat rising through their cleats. The stories and artwork are a tribute to the spirit of the Negro Leaguers, who were much more than also-rans and deserve a more prominent place on baseball’s history shelves.

Nelson’s magnificent oil paintings are often from a straight-on vantage point, as if the players took time out of the action to peer at the viewer from history, eyes leveled and challenging, before turning back to the field of play. With enormous blue skies and jam-packed grandstands backing them, these players look like the giants they are. This book will attract readers because of the full and double-page vibrant, realistic oil paintings, and immerse the reader in the compelling story being told.

4. Awards and Review Excerpts

- AWARDS -

Coretta Scott King Award, 2009 Honor Book Illustrator

Coretta Scott King Award, 2009 Winner Author

Cybil Award, 2008 Finalist Non-Fiction Middle Grade/Young Adult Book United States
International Board on Books for Young People (IBBY) Honor List, 2010 Honour List Illustrator Canada
Judy Lopez Memorial Award for Children's Literature, 2009 Winner California United States
New York Times Best Illustrated Children's Books of the Year, 2008 Winner United States
Odyssey Award, 2010 Honor United States
Orbis Pictus Award for Outstanding Nonfiction for Children, 2009 Honor Book United States
Robert F. Sibert Informational Book Medal, 2009 Winner United States
School Library Journal Battle of the (Kids') Books, 2009 Nominee United States
Society of Illustrators' Award, 2008 Silver Medal United States
Society of School Librarians International Book Awards, 2008 Honor Book Social Studies - Grades K-6 United States

- REVIEW EXCERPTS -

CHILDREN’S LITERATURE review: “The narrative showcases the pride and comradery of the Negro Leagues, celebrates triumphing on one’s own terms and embracing adversity, even as it clearly shows the “us” and “them” mentality bred by segregation. If the story is the pitch, though, it’s the artwork that blasts the book into the stands.”

KIRKUS review: “Along with being absolutely riveted by the art, readers will come away with a good picture of the Negro Leaguers' distinctive style of play, as well as an idea of how their excellence challenged the racial attitudes of both their sport and their times.”

5. Connections

Have students read other books about Negro league baseball and write a summary paper about it.

Have a discussion about how the students’ think the players in the Negro league felt (both positive and negative feelings) and why they might have felt that way.

Use when learning about segregation.

The Extraordinary Mark Twain

A. Bibliography

Kerley, Barbra. 2010. THE EXTRAORDINARY MARK TWAIN (ACCORDNIG TO SUSY). Ill. by Edwin Fotheringham. New York: Scholastic Press. ISBN 978-0-545-12508-6

2. Summary

According to his daughter Susy, Mark Twain was not the person the general public thought he was. After learning that Twain’s thirteen-year-old daughter had written her own description of him in her diary, Kerley has drawn on that to produce an account of Twain’s life and personality. Excerpts from Susy's actual diary appear inside separate mini-book inserted throughout book. The book includes bibliographical references and index.

3. Critical Analysis

Two texts run though this unusual book. The first is Kerley’s account of Samuel Clemens’ 13-year-old daughter, Susy, who decides to write her father’s biography in her journal. The second is a series of excerpts from that actual biography, neatly printed in script-like font with Susy’s misspellings intact. These entries appear on smaller, folded pages, each marked “JOURNAL,” that are tipped into the gutters of this large-format picture book’s double-page spreads.

Kerley's conversational, quotation-rich narration effectively complements Susy's insights, and the result is an affectionate portrait of Twain as writer and family man. Twain enthusiasts will be especially captivated by its fullness, as he's not revealed as the author of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn until mid-book.

Fotheringham's dynamically composed, digitally created full-bled illustrations, both inventive and appealing, effectively recall the 19th-century setting, and big, swirling lines reflect the flourishes of an ink pen. A favorite spread shows the grand Connecticut house as a cross-section, with Twain going about his routine in every room, even taking a bath! This book is a heartwarming tribute to both the writing life in general and the well-loved humorist.

A final bonus is a one page guide to students on “Writing an Extraordinary Biography (According to Barbara Kerley*),” which is available at the author’s website.

4. Awards and Review Excerpts

- AWARDS -

Kirkus Best Children’s Books ; 2010

Publishers Weekly Best Children’s Books; 2010

School Library Journal Best Books; 2010

Washington Post Best Kid’s Books; 2010

- REVIEW EXCERPTS -

BOOKLIST review: “Kerley manages to bring Susy and her famous father to life using plenty of household anecdotes. With a restrained palette and a fine sense of line, Fotheringham’s stylized, digital illustrations are wonderfully freewheeling, sometimes comical, and as eccentric as Susy’s subject.”

CHILDREN’S LITERATURE review: “Through text and journal inserts (which, we are reminded, Suzy keeps hidden under her pillow), readers get unique glimpses of Mark Twain’s life from his young daughter’s point of view. Susy gives readers both Twain’s good qualities (e.g., her Papa’s and mother’s initial meeting) and others not so good (e.g., Twain’s description of some visitors as “mentally dead”). These juxtapositions illustrate the simplicity and humanity of the often-idolized American canonical author.”

5. Connections

Read other books by Kerley such as What to do About Alice? And compare the styles of the biographies.

Have students create an “Extraordinary Biography” about someone they know using Kerley’s guide.

Create a summary about Mark Twain based on the book.