Dancing Feet!

by Lindsey Craig, Marc Brown (Illustrator)

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.

Genres: Picture Books, Storytime, Animals, Childrens, Music, Juvenile, Fiction

26 pages, Hardcover

First published May 11, 2010

About the author

Lindsey Craig  is the author of the award winning books: DANCING FEET and FARMYARD BEAT both illustrated by Marc Brown. Her books have won numerous awards and been highly praised by Kirkus Review (starred), Publisher Weekly and the New York Times Book Review; her awards include: NAAPA Gold Award Winner, Fred Rogers Best Baby Books 2011, Wilde Award Best Children’s Books, and inclusion in Texas 2X2 Reading List. She has published numerous alphabet and beginning readers for CJ Educations, and has just produced her first science app SOLAR SYSTEM SILLIES!. Her most recent books include the not-so-quiet: OH SO QUIET!, and the colorful and encouraging board books: TRY! TRY! TRY! and IN OUR TREE. Lindsey lives with her family and fat black cats on a beautiful island in Washington State.

Reviews

[Abigail · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Tippity! Tippity! / Little black feet! / Who is dancing / that tippity beat? / Ladybugs are dancing / on tippity feet. / Tippity! Tippity! / Happy feet!" And so begins this rhythmic picture-book, in which a series of creatures dance in everything from a stompity to a slappity way...

Author Lindsey Craig and illustrator Marc Brown, who subsequently collaborated on Farmyard Beat , deliver a fun read-aloud selection with Dancing Feet!, which pairs a simple, poetic text with appealing collage artwork in vibrant colors. Recommended to anyone looking for poetic picture-books for the toddler set.

[Erika · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love the rhythm! You can almost sing along to it. I did this at Book Babies today as a choral reader (every parent/caregiver and child followed along with a copy of the board book in hand). Lots of fun sounds all throughout the book. If it too seems long for babies, you don't have to read the whole thing; you can skip pages without losing any of the fun.

[Darinda · Rating 4 out of 5]

A rhyming children's book, with dancing animals. Fun! I wasn't wild about the artwork though.

[Morton Public Library · Rating 4 out of 5]

Upbeat | Animals | Textured illustrations (appeal terms from NoveList) - Emma

[Kathryn · Rating 3 out of 5]

I seem to be in the minority in not finding this book a "wow!" Perhaps because I did not read this aloud to a little one eager to guess each dancing creature by the sounds it makes. Indeed, I think this book is prime read-aloud material thanks to the funny sounds and bold, bright collage illustrations. However, I just wasn't too captivated by the "slappity-slappity" dancing of the duck or the "stompity-stompity" moves of the elephant.

[John Yelverton · Rating 2 out of 5]

I am not a huge fan of littering children's books with made-up words, because I feel that it hampers their development of speaking correctly.

[Pam · Rating 3 out of 5]

All sorts of creatures dance and have fun.
Illustrations are fun to look at and see the various materials used.

[Jenna Pennington · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thought this book was really cute! I think it would be perfect for kindergarten or first grade. I really liked the repetition in this book. It also described things very well for example, "Slappity! Slappity! Webbed orange feet! Who is dancing that slappity beat?" It uses colors and actions so this would be good for younger ages so they can get the concept. This book would really work well with instruments and the kids would be able to participate. Incorporating instruments would keep their attention and get them involved! I gave it four stars because the pictures were not all that great in my opinion, they seemed like ver basic pictures.

[Rosa Cline · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was fun to read out loud to my adult special needs son. It grabed his attention and he grinned and looked at each page as I read (almost couldn't help but sing it, it rhymed so well) The Illistrations is made to where it's a guessing game for the child as the page shows feet then the next page shows the animal so before you turn the page you can ask your child (who do you think it is) as in the text it says the sound the feet is making and then the illustration is showing the feet. Very cute book.

[Marie · Rating 5 out of 5]

EXCELLENT book for dialogic reading! One page will say something about a type of foot that's dancing, with a glimpse of the foot. You and your child can then try to guess what animal is dancing. Little man and I had fun doing that! We got one wrong- we guessed "dinosaur" when it was actually a lizard. Pretty close! LOL The text has rhythm and rhyme too. Oh, and the illustrations are collages. That's cool. We've only read it at bedtime so far, but I look forward to reading it during the day and dancing with him!

[Abby Hargreaves · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dancing Feet! is a great opportunity to make storytime interactive. While familiar animals will draw a young group's attention to the excellent illustrations in the book, different dancing descriptions will keep older kids entertained with mimicking the kinds of movement. A repetitive sentence structure makes follow-along easy and fun for caregivers and doesn't overburden the little ones enjoying it with complicated narrative structure or information. This is definitely one I'd return to, especially since it doesn't seem to be overly-well-known yet.

[Kyle Young · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dancing Feet by Lindsay Craig is a good introductory book for beginning readers. The illustrations are bright. The book is suitable for elemtary school kids and feature a lot of onomatopoeia which will keep kids interested in reading this book. This books talks of how different animals make different sounds when walking. From caterpillars to elephants this books covers the whole animal kingdom. Overall, I think this I a nice choice anyone for anyone looking for something new for their little kids to read.

[Tara McKenzie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Slappity. Slappity. Webbed orange feet. Who is dancing that slapping beat. The book goes on with several different animals each giving children a chance to guess what animal it is.

This book is a great guessing game. It gives a small description and then a picture of the feet that are dancing.

This book is great for repetition and teaching children descriptive words. It would be great for pre-k to 1st grade.

[Nicola · Rating 5 out of 5]

Miss 3 loves it. I think it helps that we have a 'Happy Foot' movement song on cd and I can use the same tune when reading the book. I also like the pictures at the back of the dancing kids pretending to be the animals.

Miss 3 and I like to explore different books and authors at the library, sometimes around particular topics or themes. We try to get different ones out every week or so; it's fun for both of us to have the variety and to look at a mix of new & favourite authors.

[Brenda · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was acceptable to childrens,because this book did talk about some of the animals that are moving and making sounds to encourage kids to get moving. However, I don't know if it will be really engage to children about really getting up and moving. This book was only saying the sounds about the animals and then revealing the animal who is making that noise. I just don't know about this book in particular.

[Viviane Elbee · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a fun and active rhyming poem about dancing feet.
The first two pages read:
Tippity! Tippity! Little black feet! Who is dancing that tippity beat?
Ladybugs are dancing on tippity feet. Tippity! Tippity! Happy feet!
Stompity! Stompity! Big gray feet! Who is dancing that stompity beat?
Elephant is dancing on stompity feet. Stompity! Stompity! Happy feet!

And it goes on, with a variety of animals and sounds.

[Diana Flores · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'd like to say, "Lindsey Craig and Marc Brown have done it again!" But this was actually the first book they collaborated on- followed by one of my other favorites, Farmyard Beat!

Good rhythm to the text, great collage-style illustrations, interactive story where you can guess whose feet are shown and who (what type of animal) is making the "walking noise" described.

Recommended for young children / library storytime!

[Katie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Cute text asking who is dancing with different kinds of beats (illustrations show the feet of the animal) allowing readers to guess what animal will be on the next page. Illustrations are big and bright, text is engaging and fun, with a simple repeating rhyme. Good for story times about animals, rhyme, and dance.

[ashley folman · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was very cute. I think that if I were to use this in my classroom it would be animal themed. This book had numerous animal pictures and traits for each of them. There was also a lot of fun words that will keep the kids interested in reading the book. The illustrations were very well done, the students love being able to look at the colorful pictures. I enjoyed this book.

[Jensen Kniska · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dancing feet was about a lot of different animals and their physical characteristics. The pictures are very inviting and colorful. This book could be used for any grade level from toddler to older elementary. I would use this book during a lesson about animals and incorporate an art activity to go along with it.

[Amy Smith · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read for a family story time focused on ages under 12. The theme was movement. Families had fun with the different foot movements. Children also had fun guessing what animal came next as there were rhyming and picture clues. If using this book for a story time, encourage participants to act out the animals/movements and have participants guess who comes next.

[Pug · Rating 3 out of 5]

If you enjoy reading pointless books with nonsenses sounds that animals supposedly make when they are dancing, this is the book for you!

If you do not enjoy it, but are a desperate adult librarian stuck doing awkward story times for little kids and need to phone it in, then this is ALSO the book for you!

[Jennifer · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fantastic read aloud with some great descriptions like "clickety" feet for the lizard and "creepity" feet for the caterpillar. The kids in story time loved guessing who was next and acting out the dance moves.

[Gianna Chimento · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a good interactive book for the younger elementary students. It is a short book with movements in it that the students can do while the book is being read aloud. The students can also listen to the book being read aloud and learn about different types of sounds.

[Emily · Rating 5 out of 5]

Craig excels at creating rhythmic, amusing rhymes that incorporate some guesswork as well as interaction on the reader's part. Brown's illustrations are dimensional and expressive. Another title I must have missed adding to GR in the last few years - it's been a favorite for a while.

[Beth Kakuma-Depew · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great story time read-aloud book for preschool and even Kindergarten. But I don't like the illustrations. Like not just the art style, but the colors are too similar, blending in at a distance. The bear is a mess of beige - bleh. But I'll use it anyway.

[Donna Mork · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cute, shows the repetitive of picture book writing and teaching kids to observe and think (showing the feet first, asking who the feet belong to, then revealing the answer on the next page).

[Holly · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is another great little book. I loved the rhyming of the story and how it flowed so nicely. The animals dancing also made it a blast to read to my little one.

[Rebecca Woods · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was very creative! It was very upbeat and happy, children 0-2 would love this book! The illustrator used shapes to draw everything. Dancing feet tells a story about all the feet in the jungle and the different sounds that they make. I personally did not like this book at all, I thought it was to redundant, and I did not like the way the illustrator used shapes to make pictures.

[Mely · Rating 4 out of 5]

fun