Who Has These Feet?

by Laura Hulbert, Erik Brooks (Illustrator)

In a lively guessing game format, find out why the feet of tree frogs, and those of eight other animals, are perfectly adapted to their habitats. Illustrated with brightly detailed paintings, this simple, informative text will have children looking at feet in a whole new way.

Genres: Picture Books, Animals, Storytime, Nonfiction, Science, Childrens, Juvenile

38 pages, Paperback

First published August 16, 2011

About the author

In kindergarten, I sat at a table working on my 5's with a chubby pencil on cardboard. I had trouble getting the pencil to go out for the pot belly of the 5, so the shapes I kept forming looked more like J's. In my determination to get the 5 figured out, I worked over the entire piece of cardboard. Finally, when I was just about to run out of space, I made a shape that actually looked like a 5. In my memory, I shouted gleefully, "I did it!"

In my work with youngsters, I have witnessed the euphoria that comes with mastering something. Making a correct guess or figuring something out for oneself is inherently gratifying. There is no need for an electronic bell or whistle to signify that this is a job well done. Even in the technological age of the 21st century, young children still enjoy the simple pleasure of mastery if given the opportunity.

Who Has These Feet? is intended to be a book that delivers interesting information in a compelling fashion. At a young age, my son was fascinated by a pop-up book about animals and their habitats. I noticed that his delight intensified once he knew what would be revealed under the flaps. That observation led me to use a guessing game format in my book about animal adaptations. I think Erik Brooks' illustrations do a wonderful job of illuminating the connection between the form of the animal's feet and their function in each particular habitat.

Reviews

[Jessica · Rating 5 out of 5]

Storytime win. Kids were super engaged with this one. The pictures alternate between a page depicting a foot, and a page showing what animal that foot goes with, and telling a fact about it. The repetition of Who Has These Feet? is perfect with my preschool crowd, and the illustrations are wonderful.

[Lucia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great book for Toddler Storytime. leads into a fun craft of doing something with feet!

[Kylie Mcgrath · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was super cute! I think this book would be perfect for super young kids. Th age range this book fits seems like it would be good for 3 year olds to about 7 year olds. This is definitely the perfect preschool or kindergarten book. It’s a book that shows kids different animal feet and is a little bit of a guessing game. This book is informational because not only does it show the reader the animal that the feet belong to, but it tells the reader why as well. For example, one page gave the suggestion that this animal has these claws on their toes so that they can claw and dig into the ground. I think the illustrations of this book make it. Each page is a new animal and their fact with a picture of the climate and habitat they are apart of. My favorite animals page is the ant simply because it’s not an animal you automatically think of, but it also shows a picture of the ants in the ground in a tunnel they dug. Overall, I very much enjoyed this and ended up reading it to my kids at work in my classroom too!

[Jennifer · Rating 4 out of 5]

One spread has pictures of feet and says, "Who has these feet?" The next spread shows the entire animals and explains in 1 brief sentence why it has feet like that (e.g. An ant has claws on the end of its feet so it can dig a nest under the ground). A nice read aloud to introduce the concept of animal adaptation (or just to talk about feet). Simple enough for babies, but interactive enough for preschoolers, too.

[Tirzah · Rating 5 out of 5]

I may have to purchase this book, because it was such a hit for a kindergarten class and I had to return it before I could read it to the other classes. I even learned cool facts about animal feet. It really is amazing how animals are intricately designed to survive and thrive in their environment. Highly recommend for a pre-k-1st grade read aloud!

Great for: Pre-k-2nd grade

Teaches: science

[Diana · Rating 4 out of 5]

Super cute! For the littlest listeners, it works very nicely if you just ask and answer the question. For the slightly more advanced kiddos, that extra sentence on each animal adds quite a bit. I'll admit that I had no idea squirrel feel look like that! See? Even adults can learn things from kids' books!

[Rachael Scott · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thought that this would be a fun story but it turned out to be a lot more fun than I anticipated. I let the kids guess who the feet belonged to (and the guesses were hilarious!) and then I showed them the correct answers. We talked about why the feet are different and special. It was an amazing!

[Lynn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very cute picture book to help children identify body parts of animals. Quick to read and fun to look at. A child at the beginning reading stage was thrilled to read this to me and discuss the pictures.

[Hannah · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent animal book for toddlers! Great at encouraging them to make inferences and use clues to guess the animal.

[Carly MJ · Rating 5 out of 5]

Super cute non-fiction book where the children get to guess what animal the feet belong to!

[Kris Dersch · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not much to it but cute and well-drawn. Kiddo liked it and guessed many of them right.

[Maeve · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interactive guessing game about the feet of different animals.

Storytime:
Animals

[Courtney · Rating 4 out of 5]

pretty good. Wish the book would have also included terminology/synonyms such as paws, flippers, etc.

[Tracy Schillemore · Rating 4 out of 5]

Kids will have fun guessing which animal the feet belong to.

[Michelle · Rating 5 out of 5]

A good mix of animals my 5 year old could identify and ones she didn't know.

[Emily · Rating 5 out of 5]

It was so funny to read to my students! They loved it and were very tickled when they couldn't figure out whose feet they were seeing!

[L]

The preschoolers and kindergarten kids had a hoot with this one.

[Chrissy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Storytime: Zoo, Animals

This one was a huge hit at Storytime. The kids loved trying to guess the different animals. One or two were tricky for them to guess, but everyone had fun with it.

[Shannon Lionheart · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fun! Interactive!

[Sharon · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have always enjoyed Steve Jenkins's animal books for their specificity-- bones, speed, tails, and motion come to mind. However, they are a little too involved for the 2.5- 3 year old. Well, this book fills the need!! Each animal is introduced by the question "Who has these feet?", followed by a close up drawing showing the top and bottom of the feet. On the next two pages, the reader learns which animal has that foot, claw, or flipper, and why. It won't be long before the story time kids are anticipating and participating with the question, "Who has these feet?"

[The Library Lady · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is losing a star because the "gatefold" trumpeted on the cover is just a foldout double spread showing all the animals. Nothing to get excited about, AND it means this book will tear this much sooner under the handling of toddlers and their parents/nannies who allow them to look at stuff unsupervised! May consider using it for story time before releasing it into the wild, or may just not release it at all :(

[Tricia · Rating 4 out of 5]

My children and I really enjoyed this book, which I wouldn't hesitate to use during storytime for preschool/early elementary. Each entry has the question posed with just the view of the feet---on the following page layout the full view is revealed. Some were really surprising and stumped all of us, which was fun!

[Kendra · Rating 4 out of 5]

Love that the author uses the feet of less regularly used animals like ants and squirrels. Many of the feet I couldn't guess so it would be a fun challenge and show kids a part of animals they likely haven't seen. Includes basic information about each animal's foot. Short and enteratining enough for a storytime.

[Christine · Rating 3 out of 5]

In this early nonfiction books, young children are treated to an animal guessing game. Illustrations of feet are matched with their owners. Readers are then presented with a fact about how those feet help animals based on where each animal lives.

[Lisa Brown · Rating 3 out of 5]

A cute book that keeps you guessing throughout, as you try to guess which animal has which feet. My kids loved guessing, and it was interesting to see the ones we got right, and the ones we were way off on.

[Francesca Bertucci · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book! At first I thought it was just going to be a picture book without much information. The book ended up being very informative about different types of animals and not only used picture illustrations but also included facts about the function of each animals feet!!

[Paula · Rating 4 out of 5]

In a lively guessing game format, find out why the feet of tree frogs, and those of eight other animals, are perfectly adapted to their habitats. Illustrated with brightly detailed paintings, this simple, informative text will have children looking at feet in a whole new way.

[Sandy Brehl · Rating 4 out of 5]

Repeating the question Who Has these feet? Each page turn puts the feet into perspective on animals viewed in a natural context. Simple text, vivid illustrations, and a wide range f animal types will keep this interesting and appealing over several readings.

[Cassie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great detailed illustrations of animals' feet. It's a great book that you can share with very young or a bit older children (I just skipped over the longer descriptions of the animals' feet with my 16 mo old).

[Megan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Early science lessons.