みえないさんぽ―このあしあとだれの?

by Gerda Muller

Rare Book

Genres: Picture Books, Nature, Childrens, Animals, Storytime, Dogs, Outdoors

Tankobon Hardcover

First published November 1, 2002

Reviews

[Manybooks · Rating 5 out of 5]

Gerda Muller's Whose Footprints Are These? (2022) is a winter and snow themed wordless picture book that was originally released under the French title of Devine qui fait quoi (guess who does what) in 1999 (and yes, Devine qui fait quoi is as far as I can tell also wordless).

Now with Whose Footprints Are These?, Muller's delightfully realistic and colourful artwork does not actually feature any obvious main characters, but instead presents an utterly, a totally visually enchanting textless account of a young (and also marvellously, wonderfully genderless) Caucasian child waking up, washing themselves, having breakfast, then going on a long walk with their dog before returning home to play "pirate ship" mainly through many different types of footprints and with the intended audience of young children being asked according to the book title to figure out who or what made the prints (with short glimpses of a child and various animals encountered during the walk, probably on a farm somewhere in Western Europe as the child's house looks very European and that the encountered wildlife of Whose Footprints Are These? is definitely also endemic to the former, is native to Western Europe).

And albeit I am not always a fan of wordless picture books and generally do tend to prefer (and often even require) a written text, no, with Whose Footprints Are These?, I have to (even if maybe a wee bit grudgingly) admit that both my adult reading self and also my inner child have not at all missed the absence of a text, and that indeed, for Whose Footprints Are These?, printed words might in fact take away some of the visual magic and the fun that children will have (or should have) following Gerda Muller's depicted footprints throughout Whose Footprints Are These? and guessing which animals are making or have made them. With lots of visual clues to pore over, with floral and faunal details to discover and also if need be to discuss, Whose Footprints Are These? and Muller's pictures are absolutely aesthetically magical, are fun, engaging and also educational, and that for me Whose Footprints Are These? rates with a solid and shining five stars (and yes, five star ratings from me is very rare and that it is indeed even rarer for me to consider a wordless picture book with a five star rating, but that Whose Footprints Are These? in my humble opinion totally and hugely merits this in every way).

[Cheryl · Rating 4 out of 5]

Floris.
Very cute. I can imagine at least one of my kids would have loved to follow the footprints with their fingers, giggling at every opportunity. Of course, in real life footprints are never this easy to track, but some people do develop a knack for it and this might help them get started or at least inspired.

[DaNae · Rating 4 out of 5]

It is all in the end papers. Such a cozy feeling to this story, which eventually did include yellow snow.

[Tara Schaafsma · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cute

[Theediscerning · Rating 4 out of 5]

A quite unusual picture book, that kind of goes against my long-established rule about translated books, in that it's over two decades old and therefore really should not be good enough if it's only now turning up in English editions for the first time – except it's wordless. So doesn't that mark it out as completely hopeless, that it's been left on some foreign shelf so long? Well, it's certainly not that. It's most unusual, as I say, concerning a small household who we never see – or not for a long time. Instead, we get double-page spreads (done using the creator's usual strong craft) that show the story of a small expedition into the snowy outside. Each and every frame, when there's been a natural place to pause the action, the lead characters are nowhere to be seen, and all we get are their footprints – either shown padding through the house or in the snow outside. You have to ignore the fact there's sometimes no reason for the MCs to be taken out of the image, and also that the minor characters get shown alongside their trails, and just go with the flow of this most inventive way to tell a story. Here's a skid in the snow, here you guess the dog was carried over the stream, here the mutt leaves its mark as only it can – it's the little touches that help you build to what little story there was. And it was a little story, when all's said and trodden on, but done like this it's curiously charming.

[Olivia]

See my full review here: https://www.yabookscentral.com/whose-...

WHOSE FOOTPRINTS ARE THESE? is a wordless picture book. The images do not have any clear main characters but tell the story through the footprints they have left behind with glimpses of a child and animals along the way. By following the footsteps across the page, children can observe where the child walked after waking up, into the bathroom, getting dressed, to breakfast, and outside to play. Animal tracks also appear throughout for the child's pet as well as a bird, rabbit, and more.

What I loved: There is certainly something special and fun about wordless picture books for toddlers and preschoolers who cannot yet read or are still learning. They give young readers a way to interact with a book fully on their own. Children will enjoy following along the footsteps and making their own guesses about what the child and animals have been doing. Clues about who made the prints are found in different parts of the story where they can see peeks at who left the tracks behind. The story is simple but creates a lot of fun for little ones with the full page illustrations and their imagination.

Final verdict: WHOSE FOOTPRINTS ARE THESE? is a clever wordless picture book that will appeal to little ones who can tell the story themselves.

[Dave Schaafsma · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thanks to Manybooks for calling my attention to this wordless picture book (she rarely five-stars books, so you take notice!), Whose Footprints are These? (1999, in French; 2002 in English, re-released 2022) by Gerda Muller that features no visible central characters, though we are encouraged to follow their foot- and paw-prints throughout. The two mcs are a child and her dog, and we can follow what they do and where they go throughout by seeing the evidence of where they have gone (the prints!), and the animals they encounters--a horse, birds, a fox, and so on. Oh, there are other creatures in the book whose prints we do not see.

What evidence do we have that this is a story of a child and her dog? Well, the cover shows us a child with a dog, moving off the page, half gone already, with that sense of movement, and their foot- and paw-prints clearly seen behind them. Then you open the cover to the end paper where we see the child and dog and other creatures doing lots of stuff together none of which is actually featured in the book itself! Unique, and charming! Fun! The colors are lovely, inviting, the layout spare and warm. Thanks, Manybooks!

[Barbara · Rating 3 out of 5]

With is striking illustrations created with gouache, colored pencil, and graphite, this wordless picture book relies on footprints and pawprints plus other prints in the snow to tell its story. It really doesn't need words to do justice to what's happening as observant youngsters will be able to look carefully at each double-page spread to trace the travelers from inside the bedroom of a house all over a farm and then back again. It's worthwhile to spend some time examining the pages more than once to see what might have been missed at first glance: for instance, a fluffy bird dining on its breakfast beneath the shelter of a birdfeeder or a mallard swimming in an icy opening or the telltale yellow urine left beside a bare tree whose stark branches stand out against the white snow. Youngsters will enjoy trying to identify who made those prints and what they were doing when they made them. While spring might be on its way, from the look of the snow and all those logs piled by the door, winter still has a grasp on the area at least for awhile.

[Kaleidoscope Magazine · Rating 5 out of 5]

In this wordless picture book, we follow a little boy on a snowy day adventure. Although we catch glimpses of the characters, we mainly follow the story through footprints and tracks. We follow the boy’s footprints getting out of bed, going for breakfast and being joined by his dog. When they step out into the snow covered garden, their footprints are joined by others. Whose are they? Where did they go? Can you guess what they are doing?

This is a wonderful book to discuss with children, there are lots of questions to ask, mysteries to solve and animals to seek. It’s fun to match the animals to the footprints and to see what they are doing. Gerda Mullers soft pencil and gouache illustrations are beautiful, they are skilfully observant of the natural world and full of detail, silver birch, pine tree bark and needles, the way that snow turns slushy by a stream and the soft pinkish grey of a snow laden sky.
A perfect winter read for those who love outdoor play, nature and wintery scenes.

[Kathryn · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is such a delight! I am so happy my youngest came to peek at what I was reading and decided to snuggle in, caught up in the delightful mystery of who had left the tracks. He’s beyond the target audience but we still had so much fun, found ourselves giggling and guessing our way through each page. It's a wordless picture book and the details in the illustrations are a delight and so ingenious for we only ever see footprints yet we have so many clues to figure out who may have made them and what they might be doing as they go about from their bedroom into the yard and back home. (Loved, for example, the spot where you can guess the child jumped up and down grabbing a tree branch – or the bits of humor such as a little yellow puddle in the snow beside a bush where the dog tracks have been). Warm, cozy, fun and imaginative – I loved it.

[Emily · Rating 4 out of 5]

A story is told in footprints. A child gets up, has breakfast, then goes to explore outside in the snow. We see the footprints and the remnants of their activity, and are left to tell what happens ourselves. Hints show incredible detail, like an addition of a walking stick leaving a small dot next to the footprints while it is carried. Wordless, allowing the reader to develop their narrative skills. The endpapers very subtly show the protagonist actually doing the things that the illustrations hint at, which was a fun realization after the fact.

[Janet · Rating 4 out of 5]

In this wordless picture about footsteps(tracks) we see a child and dog arising and going for a walk in the snow and at the end another person appearing all without seeing the young boy and his dog till the last page. The illustrations done with gouache, colored pencil, and graphite are exquisite and the footsteps take us along on the walk to see various place the child looks for. First published in 1999 in France and finally published in 2022 in the USA. Perfect for children and families who love to walk in the snow.
I loved this title.

[Hilary · Rating 4 out of 5]

A picture book with no text where we follow the characters by their footprints. We see some barefoot prints leading from a child's bed, which then turn to slipper footprints, joined by dog paw prints that then go outdoors for a walk. It is winter and snow is on the ground, we follow the child and dog footprints whilst coming across lots of others on the walk.

This is a fun idea for a story and Gerda Muller's illustrations are wonderful as always.

[Jared White · Rating 4 out of 5]

A lovely wordless picture book about footprints in the snow. On the endpapers you see the child and dog doing all the actions that are hinted at (by their footprints and leaving things different than they found them) in the rest of the book. Some little ones may have fun trying to match up the pictures in the endpapers with where they go in the book, though some may be frustrated that they aren't just included in the story.

[Nancy · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a fun and lovely wordless picture book. The illustrations are really nice. The story is told by following footprints. The main characters never appear on the pages except through their footprints. Other creatures are shown with the tracks they leave. BUT! The end papers hold drawings of a boy and dog engaged in different activities that illustrate what they were doing in the book. Such a good concept.

[Erin Buhr · Rating 4 out of 5]

WHOSE FOOTPRINTS ARE THESE is a wordless book that invites the reader to follow footprints across the pages. There are clues throughout to the owners of the various prints and what might be happening, but it is up to the reader to determine a narrative. I love how this invites the reader to carefully look at the illustrations, share a story, and use their imagination.

[Rebecca Hill · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was cute, although I would love to see this in printed format, as the electronic one was not as clean as I imagine the print version will be.

Sweet picture story for early readers! I look forward to seeing a finished copy!

[Amy · Rating 4 out of 5]

A simple, wordless picture book looking at an ordinary winter day and who is out to play. This would be fun for ages 0-5 as you look at the various illustrations and picture clues to try and determine whose footprints they are.

[Wanda · Rating 3 out of 5]

Such a strange sensation, creating a story in your head based on images in a book. A wordless book. A mystery, follow the footsteps of a young child and their dog as they spend a winter's day in the countryside. A mystery you can go back to time and again and maybe discover more to the story.

[Viviana]

Art's lovely

[Leova Manbhat · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wordless book. You follow along a set of footprints as they go out in the snow to their backyard. More mysterious footprints join and disappear in the pages of the book.

[Terresa Wellborn · Rating 3 out of 5]

Themes: winter, footprints, books without words
Ages: preK-1st grade
Pub year: 2022

[Earl · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fun wordless picture book that will encourage readers to think about whatever exactly happened on each page.

[Andréa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Note: I accessed a digital review copy of this book through Edelweiss.