Centipede's 100 Shoes

by Tony Ross

When a centipede trips over, and hurts his foot, the only thing for him to do is obtain a set of shoes for all of his feet . . . That is a lot of shoes! Now it could take him longer to get dressed than to do anything else. So, after a rethink, he shares his shoes amongst various beetles, spiders, earwigs and other creatures. Count up the number of feet, and find out whether he manages to get rid of all his shoes! (Do you think he started with 100 in the beginning?)

Genres: Picture Books, Mathematics, Childrens, Animals, Humor, Fiction, Counting

32 pages, Paperback

First published February 21, 2002

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author by this name in the Goodreads database.

Tony Ross is a British illustrator and author of children's picture books. He was a student at the Liverpool School of Art and Design. Ross has had quite a few occupations, such as cartoonist, graphic designer, art director at an advertising agency, senior lecturer in art and head of the illustration course at Manchester Polytechnic.
Ross won the 1986 Deutscher Jugendliteraturpreis, picture books category, for Ich komm dich holen!, (I'm coming to get you! - Andersen, 1984. He was runner-up for the 1990 Kate Greenaway Medal from the Library Association, recognising the year's best children's book by a British subject, for Dr. Xargle's book of Earth Tiggers.

Meet the illustrator
What is your favourite animal?
A cat
What is your favourite boy’s name?
Bill
What is your favourite girl’s name?
Roxanne
What is your favourite food?
Lobster
What is your favourite music?
Irish
What is your favourite hobby?
Sailing

Reviews

[Melki · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cute story and fun art by Ross. Perfect book for any child struggling with shoe tying. Imagine having to tie so many laces, umpteen times a day?

[Mandi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sweet family & funny story, we enjoyed reading this out loud 💜

[Jennifer · Rating 3 out of 5]

This story has a silly centipede hurting his foot, buying shoes to protect his many feet, and eventually deciding they're more trouble than they're worth. Not really a counting book or an insect book, but amusing nonetheless. Kids who don't like wearing shoes or learning to tie them will relate and enjoy.

[Jessie · Rating 3 out of 5]

The humor here is a little more understated than I expected.

There are three math-y pieces here: buying 50 pairs of shoes/centi meaning 100, how many shoes are left over (because the centipede does not, in fact, have 100 feet), and how many other critters (and what critters) the centipede gives the socks and shoes to at the end.

[Olivia S · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is hilarious, I love it. Just as good as I'd hoped. Maybe even better. Centipede stubs his toe, so his mom (after finding which one and kissing it better) suggests that he get some shoes. Hi jinks ensue. Great last page. Will use for storytime. 3+

[Fahula · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a cute book, great for the 100th day of school. So many mathematical reasoning possibilities! I love the way Centipede shows perseverance, and there are several humorous turn of events to make us chuckle.

[Anthony · Rating 4 out of 5]

After stubbing one of his toes on a rock, a centipede invests in 100 shoes to protect his feet. It's a good idea, but not well thought out. His later plan of what to do with 100 shoes was much better.

[Jo Oehrlein · Rating 3 out of 5]

Relies on you knowing how many feet different critters have.

I like the note that most centipedes only have 42 feet.

[kim · Rating 2 out of 5]

meh

[Zsofia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very cute, the kids really enjoyed this one. Not that text heavy.

[Elizabeth Aguilar · Rating 1 out of 5]

Honestly, I don't get it.

[Fatima Seraj Alam · Rating 5 out of 5]

Such a hilarious book of a centipede who decides to wear shoes to prevent injury but more complications arise. Highly recommend.

[Amy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cute story about a centipede dealing with the shoe and sock issue when you have 100 legs. Great math connections: multiplication, estimating, time, subtraction, doubles, cost

[Donna Peake · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fun read to my Grandchildren.

[Poppy Thorpe · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a cute story about a little centipede and his quest for shoes!

[EvelynTMP · Rating 5 out of 5]

This had, genuinely, my Daddy and Mummy crying and giggling with laughter. Maybe they’re overtired…

[Molly Robbins · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is not one that I would preferably want to use in my classroom to integrate a successful math lesson. There is not a lot of depth in the math throughout it, and in my mind it was a little bit confusing. I liked the fact that it was working on subtraction. It talks throughout the story about the centipede having a lot of shoes then having some left over. It goes on to say the same thing about his socks. During the story, the reader has to figure out how many he has left. An activity they could do with this is either have them create/draw their own centipede or print one out for everyone, and have more than enough shoes on his legs. They would first have to count how many legs it had, then count all the shoes and see how many they have left over, or how many they need to put one on all of his legs.

[Caroline · Rating 4 out of 5]

Little centipede stubs his toe and wants new shoes to protect his feet. However, putting them on and taking them off again takes so long (especially when he gets socks for each of his feet).

There are several footwear-related books I like to read, and this is at the top of them. It's cute and informative to teach children about centipedes (their name means 100 feet, but they usually only have around 46) and I ask them how they would feel if they had to put on that many shoes each morning. Maybe ask them if they know how to tie their shoes.

Great for preschoolers with a funny ending.

[Melanie Hetrick · Rating 3 out of 5]

A little centipede stubs a toe and his mother decides to buy him 100 pairs of shoes. Problem is, centipedes usually only have 42 pairs of legs. But it still takes the little centipede a good while to get all of his shoes on and tied. He then finds that the new shoes hurt his feet. So his aunts begin to knit him socks. Only, now it takes little centipede until lunchtime to get all of his socks on and then after lunch he puts on all of his shoes and ties the laces. The next day he finally decides that shoes aren't worth the trouble so he gives them all to other insects. Including 2 worms.

[Vanessa Peavy · Rating 4 out of 5]

WOW! Such a cute book. This book is great can be used to do so many activities. It has problem solving, addition, subtraction and subtraction. You can also read this book for the younger grades on the 100th day of school. I would probably give each group of students a character out of the book along with problem solving questions that they would have to figure out. Also a graph can be made to show how many legs each character in the book has, then problem solve to figure out how many shoues they would need.

Reading this book:
Grade:k-3

Activities:
Grade:2-3

[St Michael's Primary Oxford · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hilarious - poor centipede has hurt his foot so his mum says he needs shoes to protect his, er, 100 feet. A mammoth task for a shoe sales person, but think of the commission! Well, it's all very well having all those shoes but just think how long it takes to do them up and tie the laces. (He could have used Velcro I suppose.) A great book to use for counting and it has lots of verbal and pictorial humour.

[The Reading Countess · Rating 3 out of 5]

I checked this book out at my school library in hopes of tying it in to my youngest son's 100th day of school. Although the number is mentioned, the shoe issue for the centipede overrides the number concept, and so my initial thought about how to use this book with him were sunk. Still, an enjoyable book for both of us!

[Rachel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Centipede bumps his foot, and his mother suggets that he buys shoes so he won't hurt his feet anymore. But the shoes hurt his feet, so he buys socks to go with them. But he spends so much time putting on and taking off his socks and shoes that he decides to just go back to the way he was and gives away his socks and shoes to all of his other insect friends.

[Chloe Alexander · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a cute book that can help with counting to one hundred and would be a good book to read on the 100th day of school. It's also a good way to teach young kids that "centi-" means one hundred. You could use the book for activities, like figuring out how many friends Centipede could give shoes away to if all his friends had 6 feet, how many shoes would be left over, etc.

[Christina Camp · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book. It is about a centipede who decided he wanted to buy some shoes, but by the end of the story he realized it was too much work to put on shoes and socks every morning and take them off again at night. He decided to go and give all of his 100 shoes to all of his friends. This book is good for teaching about bugs and also about counting and putting things into pairs.

[Liz Todd · Rating 2 out of 5]

Kind of fell flat as a read aloud. Wish the language would have been more exaggerated about the putting on and taking off of shoes--or that the timing would have been clearer for the kids to really grasp the silliness of it all. Their favorite part was counting to 100 with the graphic in the end papers.

[Jess · Rating 5 out of 5]

Such a cute story with very colorful pictures. About a centipede who hurts one of his feet and needs shoes, then socks, but then hates putting them on all the time and gives them away to his many insect friends.

[Rachel · Rating 5 out of 5]

My sons specifically asked me to get this book again--no better book recommendation in my mind!

[Andrea · Rating 1 out of 5]

I read this to a first grade class celebrating the 100th day of school. Not only was it not a success, it bored me to tears. I think its a fun idea, but poorly written.

[Angela · Rating 4 out of 5]

great book for teaching about 100