What do You do When Something Wants to Eat You?

Jenkins, Steve. 1997. WHAT DO YOU DO WHEN SOMETHING WANTS TO EAT YOU? Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company. ISBN 0-395-82514-8

PLOT SUMMARY
Using colorful paper collage artwork, Steven Jenkins depicts how fourteen animals that are about to perish, escape with their lives. One page introduces the victim-to-be, and the following page describes its defense mechanism. The book ends with a peculiar question aimed at the reader, "What would you do if something wanted to eat you?

CRITICAL ANALYSIS
The cover and title are a clear invitation to pick up this book. The cover depicts a bird attempting to have a to-go dinner. This is the type of book you take from the shelf and sit in the same isle where you found it to finish reading it. Simon keeps the attention of the reader by using colorful paper collage artwork. The artwork is simple, but that works as a plus making it easy for young readers to focus their attention on the prey or the predator. The book reads like a suspense thriller. On one page we find the poor victim about to meet its untimely death, but on the following page we learn how it outwitted its predator.

When an octopus is threatened...
(next page)
it squirts a thick cloud of black into into the water, confusing its
attacker.

Simon also doesn't sugar coat the realities of the brutal animal world.

The glass snake is really a lizard without legs. When it is grabbed by the
tail...its tail breaks into many small, wriggling pieces.

This caused many "yukkkks!" from the girls , but lots of "Wow, cools" from my boys. This book never rested on my bookshelf, but rather traveled from one student to another.



REVIEWS
"In this absorbing tribute to nature's genius, cut-paper collages illustrate the built-in defenses of animals and insects..." - From Publisher's Weekly


"Useful for teachers introducing animal defenses and the terms that go along with the subject and a great choice for a story time." - From School Library Journal

CONNECTIONS

While all the animals in our book escape from death, this book is a great way to begin the study of life cycles. The book also makes for a fantastic read aloud, making each turn of a page very suspenseful!

Students quickly understood that the ellipsis meant there is more to come and thus a language arts lesson was incorporated.

Other books by Steve Jenkins: Move! , Actual Size , What do You do With a Tail Like This? , and Animal Dads, to name a few.