Maw Books

Maw Books – book reviews, book recommendations, book lists, author interviews and more!

My boys and I laid in bed the other morning and read Little Skink’s Tail by Janet Halfmann and illustrated by Laurie Allen Klein.  Seriously, nothing is better than lounging in bed before getting up while reading picture books aloud.  Even better that the book was within arms reach of the bed thus not even having to get up to retrieve our morning reading material!

While eating ants for breakfast (yuk! said my boys), Little Skink is attacked by a crow.  But she has a trick up her sleeve and that is to snap off her bright blue tail which keeps wiggling as she makes her escape. While Little Skink is very happy to be alive she desperately misses her blue tail.  As she meets various animals in the forest that day she imagines what she would look like if she had their tail.  But they are all too fluffy,too bushy, too stubby, too stinky, too prickly or too pointy.  Will she find the perfect tail or will she be in for an even bigger surprise?

My four-year-old LOVES footprints and he really enjoyed a map activity found at the end of book where he matched the footprints to the different animals Little Skink encountered in the forest.  There is also a matching game to identify the tails with the animals as well.  As soon as we finished both activities, he turned to the beginning of the book and narrated the entire thing back to me.  Of course, it was his own narration but he was pretty darn close!

Little Skink’s Tail is a welcome addition to our library and comes with our recommendation as it’s not often that my little guy will spend a good twenty minutes looking at a book on his own.

Links of interest: Janet Halfmann website, Laurie Allen Klein website, more book blogger reviews, posted in conjunction with Cari’s Purple Day Mini-Challenge.
Genre:  Picture Book, approx age 4-8.
Publisher:  Sylvan Dell.  August 10, 2007.
Hardcover, 32 pages.  ISBN  0976882388
Source copy: Review copy from author
Little Skink’s Tail is available from your favorite independent bookstore, Powell’s, and Amazon.

Hey you! Yes. You! I've noticed that you've stopped by to visit a few times! But I don't know who you are. Why don't you take a moment and introduce yourself. Don't be scared. I try not to bite. I know you're a lurker but I'd love to hear your thoughts about what's been bringing you here. And if you haven't done so already, don't forget to never miss a post by subscribing to my feed or receiving updates by email. Thanks for visiting!