Sunday, June 20, 2010

DANCING FEET by Lindsey Craig


Books with rhythm and rhyme--books that are fun for young children--are some of my favorite books. Sally, at Cover to Cover, shared DANCING FEET by Lindsey Craig with me during my recent Cover to Cover visit. It is great fun and so much for young readers to love.

First of all, this is a fun, rhythmic book. One of my favorite books is TANKA TANKA SKUNK. This one has that same feel for me. There is fun with words, sounds and rhythm. This is definitely a book that kids will want to join in for--it asks to be read together.

Another reason young children will love this one is that they love to guess what is coming next and this book is designed for them to do this. Each rhyme covers two pages. On the first page, the readers gets clues in both pictures and in words as to which animal's feet are being described. For example:
Stompity! Stompity!
Big gray feet!
Who is dancing
that stompity beat?
The next page answers the riddle with a chant in the same rhythm and an accompanying illustrations.

I LOVE LOVE LOVE the illustrations in this book. They are made with cut paper--you can see that the illustrator, Marc Brown, used several textures. This is a new type of art for Marc Brown and I LOVE it! Looking more closely at it as I write this, I am thinking that this may be on my short list of Caldecott hopefuls. The illustrations are definitely engaging, colorful and unique.

I am excited about this book--it will make a great fun read aloud. I know this is a book that kids will want to read again and again and again. And I am pretty sure I won't get sick of it. (And it looks like this is Lindsey Craig's first children's book. Can't wait for the next one!)

3 comments:

  1. Sounds perfect for a kindergarten room, thanks a bunch!

    ReplyDelete
  2. I just received two of your other recommendations: I KNOW HERE and CITY DOG, COUNTRY FROG. Let me just say thank you. Two delights. If your daughter does not know about FELT WEE FOLK, I think she might like it. Kudos to her on her crafty blog...like mother, like daughter!
    A.
    ps - I have some crafty links at my site she might like too...at "inspiration and fun".

    ReplyDelete
  3. I think it is just the cutest book! Lindsey Craig is a friend of mine and she spends hours and hours looking at children's books and listening to kids to see just what they REALLY like to hear and read. She and George Shannon are two of my favorite "today's" children's authors. Good people who know kids...how can you go wrong with any of their books? Makes me kind of wish I was still in the classroom...

    ReplyDelete

Comment moderation is turned on.