Dancing Feet!

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)" Copyright 2010 Publishers Weekly Used with permission.

PreS-KIn 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" Copyright 2010 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.