Whose Footprints Are These?
by Gerda Muller; illus. by the author
Preschool    Floris    40 pp.    g
10/22    978-1-78250-810-6    $17.95

This playful wordless picture book invites children to deduce from the shape and placement of footprints what is happening. The title page gives just a glimpse of a dark-haired child in bed, but from that point on we see only where the child has gone, following their small footprints getting out of bed, switching to slippers, heading to the bathroom, and so on. Muller’s gouache, ­colored-pencil, and graphite pictures show a ­European-style house, blending clean, organized ­surroundings with pops of color and pattern but leaving room for a small child’s little messes as they move around. The child is joined by something with paw prints, whose identity is hinted at by a leash hanging near the door as the pair heads outside into the snow. There’s something to enjoy or wonder about on each double-page spread, such as the paw prints going around in circles, or the addition of a puddle of yellow in the snow after they have stopped by a tree; we also see others—birds, a horse, a duck, etc.—each with their own ­distinctive prints. Humor and imagination have free rein in this cozy and engrossing book.

From the September/October 2022 issue of The Horn Book Magazine.