Sandy Feet! Whose Feet? (Hardcover)

When a family spends a day at the beach, the children investigate various footprints to see what type of creatures live along the shoreline. Rhyming text turns a sandy beach into an outdoor classroom. The tracks and habits of local wildlife, including hopping sandpipers, scuttling crabs, and burrowing turtles, are identified and explained for young ecology detectives. Even Daddy's feet make an appearance! And at day's end, it's time for tired feet to make their way home. STEM-based back matter includes information on how clues like footprints can identify the type of wildlife inhabiting any given habitat.

School Library Journal

In this title, a family enjoys a fun day at a sandy beach. They enjoy activities such as playing with the dog, frolicking in the sand, and observing the creatures that inhabit the area. Additionally, this book explores the various footprints of different creatures. The footprints observed include those of crabs, sandpipers, and turtles. The text appears to follow the pattern of the beach as it twists and curves alongside layered sand and moving water. This unique aspect gives the book a natural feel. Throughout the narrative, there is a constant repetition of the word “feet” that is reflective of the overall soothing rhyming pattern. Both of these features help to harmonize the narrative. Each mention of feet is accompanied by different movements of beach creatures, which can serve as a tool to help kids become familiar with how different animals move. These movements can also be matched with illustrations of each animal’s respective footprint patterns. The perspective of the book also changes throughout and contains close-up, distant, and aerial views of the family as they play. This element of the book creates a sense of constant movement which effectively mimics the fast and excited pace of the book’s characters. VERDICT An engaging read which encourages children to explore the natural world around them, and to fully utilize and embrace their senses.

Kirkus Reviews

A family spends a day at the beach observing various creatures’ prints in the sand. Children and families of various skin tones and hair textures play on the beach as the main characters, a mother and father, a boy and a girl, all with brown skin, arrive, the children running toward the water. In spare, mostly rhyming verses, the text introduces “sandy feet” and “digging feet” and “wading feet” alongside small creatures as the children encounter them on the beach. A wet dog, a sandpiper, a scuttling crab, a sea gull. Each full-bleed illustration features motion—spraying water and creatures in action, with hints on each spread of the creature to be featured on the next. As the sun goes down, the family packs up and walks away from the water, tired out. The final spread shows a collection of prints featured throughout the book. Endnotes encourage readers to be “ecology detectives” and observe prints in nature, then provide information about the animals in the book. The calming beach colors create nostalgia for beach lovers, and the changing perspective of each spread adds interest for the duration of the book. More substantive than some beach-themed books, this one is engaging enough and notable due to the spotlight on brown children.