Mixed-Up Animal Writing and Art Activity

My two tall tale books, The Terrible Hodag and the Terrible Hodag and the Animal Catchers, feature a creature with the “head of an ox, feet of a bear, back of a dinosaur, and the tail of an alligator.”  (The first Hodag stories were  invented about a hundred years ago in Rhinelander, Wisconsin. My books are variations on those tales.)  On a recent visit to my brother’s third grade class in Novato, California, I asked the children to invent their own mixed-up animals.  They created some remarkable creatures, complete with illustrations! One of my favorites had the head of a fly, feet of a chicken, back of an albatross and tail of a leopard.  Its favorite food is bats! I hope that some of the students will now use their invented animals to write their own tall tales!