What Good Is a Tail? - Hardcover

Patent, Dorothy Hinshaw

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0525651489 ISBN 13: 9780525651482

Publisher: Dutton Juvenile, 1994

Synopsis

Full-color photographs and a simple text by the creators of Feathers help show young readers what a tail really is and how animals from alligators to birds to kangaroos use their tails.

About this title

From School Library Journal:

Grade 2-4-A description of the forms and functions of various wild animals' tails. After an introductory chapter about general characteristics of tails and their uses, Patent discusses them according to a particular function: movement, balance, communication, and survival. Attention is given to explaining how physical attributes contribute to animal behavior. The fluid text maintains continuity within the theme of each chapter. Full-color photographs are clear, but some are rather small. Captions are printed in small type with pictures carefully labeled if more than one photograph appears on a page. Many creatures, such as the alligator, peacock, and seahorse, are duplicated in Marlene Robinson's What Good Is a Tail? (Shapolsky, 1991), but plenty of different ones are also featured. While Patent's book is colorful and more visually appealing, Robinson's provides more specific information.
Diane Nunn, Richard E. Byrd Elementary School, Glen Rock, NJ
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Kirkus Reviews:

A reliable author/photographer team collaborates on another winning book--somewhat easier to read than their Feathers (1992)- -with a lively text, appealing color photos, and intriguing science facts showing just how useful a tail can be. What is a tail? According to Patent, ``It's the part of the body that sticks out beyond the end of the digestive system.'' It may aid balance and locomotion, as in the case of the opossum, sea horse, wallaby, shark, and squirrel; attract a mate or communicate, like the flashy white tuft of the deer, colorful peacock plumes, or the fancy rudder of a guppy; or discourage a predator--think of the porcupine's prickly appendage, or the spiny-tailed dab lizard. Index. (Nonfiction. 9-12) -- Copyright ©1994, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

About this edition

• Publisher: Dutton Juvenile
• Publication date: 1994
• ISBN 10: 0525651489
• ISBN 13: 9780525651482
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 32