Everybody wants some tail

Little Skink's Tail
by Janet Halfmann; illustrated by Laurie Allen Klein

Sylvan Dell Publishing

A skink's a type of lizard with a dazzling cobalt tail, which the poor critter loses in a fight with a crow. While this saves her life, it leaves her unadorned. While she's waiting for it to grow back, she imagines herself with tails from other forest animals.

A squirrel's tail is too bushy, nor does a porcupine's please. And feathers? Still no.

Halfmann really runs with this idea, keeping the storyline simple but upping the ante as Skink considers the different appendages. Even kids unfamiliar with most of these animals will get the humor in Skink's good-natured tail shopping.

Klein's watercolors are lifelike, the better to educate, and exercises in the back enhance our foray into Skink's forest. Like If a Dolphin Were a Fish, (also by this illustrator) it's a fanciful way of teaching what an animal is by demonstrating what it isn't -- which uses fairy-tale transformation to impart factual information.

Rating: *\*\*\