Dancing Feet!

by Lindsey Craig, Marc Brown (Illustrator)

Overview

Clickity! Clickity! Long green feet!  
Who is dancing that clickity beat?

Lizard is dancing on clickity feet.  
Clickity! Clickity! Happy feet!

Introducing a get-up-and-dance toddler book-so catchy and rhythmic, you'll almost want to sing it.

Lindsey Craig's rollicking text features funny sound words (Tippity! Creepity! Stompity! Thumpity!), dancing animals, a singsong beat, and a guessing element just easy enough for preschoolers to anticipate. Marc Brown's artwork is bright, textured, and joyful, a collage of simple shapes for kids to find and name.

So grab a partner and tap your feet to this read-aloud picture-book treat.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780307930811
Publisher:	Random House Children's Books
Publication date:	05/08/2012
Pages:	32
Sales rank:	214,990
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 5.90(h) x 0.70(d)
Lexile:	BR (what's this?)
Age Range:	2 - 5 Years

About the Author

LINDSEY CRAIG lives on Bainbridge Island, Washington, with her family. Her second book with Marc Brown, Farmyard Beat, is also available from Knopf. 

About the Illustrator
MARC BROWN is the creator of Arthur, the star of many picture books and a six-time Emmy Award-winning PBS TV show. He is also the illustrator of Buying, Training & Caring for Your Dinosaur by Laura Rennert and the New York Times bestsellers Wild About Books and Born to Read by Judy Sierra, as well as their upcoming collaboration, Zoozical.

Editorial Reviews

Consistently in step with newcomer Craig's toe-tapping narrative, Brown's cut-paper collages herald a fresh direction for his artwork. Recalling the simple yet sophisticated collage art of Leo Lionni (to whom Brown dedicates the book) and Eric Carle, the pictures introduce a cheerful menagerie of animals composed of basic shapes cut from hand-painted papers in an array of colors, textures, and patterns that recall everything from corrugated cardboard to exotic grasses. Celebrating movement and sound, the guessing-game story hints at the identity of each creature, initially seen retreating from the page, leaving footprints behind. Spontaneous, onomatopoeic verses ask questions that are answered with a page turn: “Tippity! Tippity!/ Little black feet!/ Who is dancing that tippity beat?” leads into a spread that reveals ladybugs cavorting among leaves and dappled orange flowers. An elephant's beat is “stompity,” ducks' is “slappity,” a caterpillar's is “creepity,” and a bear's is “thumpity.” In a satisfying finale, kids wearing clothing that mimics the appearance of the various animals demonstrate their own dancing feet. Fluid repetition and snappy rhythm make this a natural for reading aloud—noisily. Ages 1–4. (May)

Publishers Weekly

PreS-K—In this picture book, children are asked to guess who's dancing across a spread by looking at the clues in the artwork and listening to the rhymes. A dancing bear makes a "Thumpity! Thumpity!" noise with its feet, while the steps of ladybugs sound more like, "Tippity! Tippity!" Appearing alongside a row of small footprints is: "Creepity! Creepity!/Lots of purple feet!/Who is dancing/that creepity beat?" A turn of the page reveals an illustration of a smiling caterpillar and the answer: "Caterpillar's dancing/on creepity feet./Creepity! Creepity!/Happy feet!" Brown uses hand-painted paper collage and primary shapes to create all of the happy dancers. A surprise pairing of partners ends this cheerful story and acts as a motivator to get children moving. Pair this title with Karma Wilson's Hilda Must Be Dancing (S & S, 2004) for storytimes full of movement and sounds.—Tanya Boudreau, Cold Lake Public Library, AB, Canada

School Library Journal

Craig's children's-book debut is a riotous, rhythmic romp that gives children the chance to make guesses, experiment with sound and movement and play with language. The patterned text gives readers a clue as to the sound an animal would make if it were dancing. "Tippity! Tippity! / Little black feet! / Who is dancing / that tippity beat?" With the help of picture clues, children can make their guesses before a turn of the page reveals the answer. "Ladybugs are dancing / on tippity feet. / Tippity! Tippity! / Happy feet!" Stompity elephants, slappity ducks, creepity caterpillars, thumpity bears and clickety lizards all join in the dance. The final spread shows children dancing like their favorites. Brown's illustrations are inspired, displaying a remarkable departure from his usual style, combining textured, hand-painted papers in collage. The result simply pops off the pages, with shape and color creating an intimate, joyful setting for the cheery animal dancers. Fantastic fun with nearly limitless possibilities-terrific for group sharing. (Picture book. 1-5)

Kirkus Reviews