These Little Feet by Hayley Rawsthorne illustrated by Briony Stewart

 

This book has sweet end papers with an ownership space that says:

"These little footprints belong to:"

The text is written like a poem. Each stanza begins and ends with a repeated line.

These little feet so tiny and new.

The places they'll go the dances they'll do.

The mountains they'll climb, the dreams they'll pursue.

These little feet so tiny and new.

I often think about the process when an illustrator receives the text for a picture book. I assume this words for this book were sent on one page. Briony Stewart needed to interpret the words - she does that beautifully and she needed to position the text on each page.

This book will be given as a gift for a new baby due to be born in April this year. I have huge box of books ready for the arrival of this precious baby girl. Mum is from Bolivia so it is good to see Briony Stewart has included babies with different skin tones, a baby in hospital, and a baby with her dad. The final page acts as a recap where we can view the scattered photos from various family photo albums.

You can see inside this book on the author web page. Click here to see other books illustrated by Briony Stewart. And I talked about her work in a previous post. 

And truly gorgeous these illustrations are. Stewart’s soft and loose style brings the characters alive. The details she has added make them so real and the diversity she has injected makes this a book inclusive and welcoming. Rawsthorne has captured all the emotions of new babies coming into the world in this book. And the hopes and dreams (and curiosity) their loved ones have for their future. Add Stewart’s beautiful illustrations and you get a picture book that will be treasured by families for many years. Kids' Book Review

These little feet is a story and celebration about babies spanning several generations across one family, starting in about the 1920s or 1930s, and going through the decades towards today, with each generation exploring a different sense: feet, hands, eyes, ears, and mouths across generations of the same family. The Book Muse

Of course I will also gift these two books: