Long and Short Tail of Colo and Ruff, The

by Diane Lang, Laurie Allen Klein (Illustrator)

Colo the cougar and her friend Ruff jump and play together, but they find that Ruff can t jump nearly as far as Colo. Ruff doesn t have a long, swishy tail like Colo does, to provide balance on long leaps. Ruff is a bobcat and his tail is much shorter. He is sure that something is wrong with him. The sympathetic Colo suggests that they go find a tail that Ruff would like better, so off they go. As the two kittens explore the variety of tails worn by other animals, they make the best discovery of all.

32 pages, Hardcover

Published February 10, 2019

About the author

An effervescent speaker and impassioned naturalist, Diane Lang began working as a docent at the Lindsay Wildlife Museum in Walnut Creek, California in 2001. Over the next decade, she presented public programs about the various wild animals that reside at the museum, led class tours, visited schools, and worked directly with the museum’s non-releasable hawks, owls, falcons, and yes, vultures. Before long Diane was also docenting at Sulphur Creek Nature Center in Hayward and at Eaton Canyon Nature Center back in her hometown of Pasadena where she helped to create innovative nature-focused curricula for student groups.

She’d already served as a reader in the public schools via the Pleasanton Public Library and had read countless books to her son Peter. And before that, she’d honed her writing skills in the publications department at the California Institute of Technology. She holds a B.A. from Cal State Los Angeles.

Diane has written verses for fun all her life, but she started spending more time at it just a few years ago, when she wondered if putting some of the animal information into rhyme would help children remember it. During some programs, she would say to the children that even though we don’t send birthday cards or valentines to spiders and insects, we probably should, because they are some of our best friends! As she wondered what such valentines might sound like, she started having fun with the idea, and Vulture Verses: Love Poems for the Unloved was born.

After sharing her fascination with the natural world and its more exotic animals with children at these three nature centers, Diane goes home to her husband, the acclaimed origami artist and physicist Robert Lang, and her menagerie (which includes the tarantula she travels with), and writes poems about her favorite critters.

Reviews

[Janet Squires · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Long and Short Tale of Colo and Ruff by Diane Lang with illustrations by Laurie Allen Klein uses a fictional story as means of providing readers with basic information about a variety of animals in a compare and contrast format.

Colo, a young cougar, relies on her long tail for balance and can jump great distances. Her friend Ruff, a bobcat cub, has a short tail and can’t keep up and worries that there is something wrong. Together the friends set out to see if there is a better tail for Ruff. In the process they discover a lizard, Redtail hawk, skunk, and gopher and those encounters lead Ruff to an important realization.

Following the story text is a Creative Minds section with multiple activities to reinforce understanding of the content.
Cat Comparisons charts comparative facts about cougars, bobcats, and housecats.
Cat Maps illustrates and describes the habitat and range of North America’s bobcats, ocelots, cougars and lynxes.
Tail Adaptations discusses the physical adaptations that influence balance, turning speed and steering, and defense.
Match the Tail challenges readers to pair pictures of tails with their animals.

The book identifies an audience of ages 5-9. Young readers will enjoy the strong visual impact of the images and benefit from reading with an adult or older sibling.

The text was fact-checked by Animal Program Specialist from the Columbus Zoo. Most double-page spreads contain brief paw-print highlighted call-outs with additional information.

Additional Educational Resources are available at:
https://www.arbordalepublishing.com/R...