Tapping Feet, from Reycraft Books, Explores How a Melding of Cultures Created Dance History
The picture book traces how a mutual love for dance brought African Americans and Irish Americans together.
New Rochelle, NY, July 31, 2023—Leading children’s trade publisher Reycraft Books delves into the origins and evolution of an American-born dance style in the new picture book Tapping Feet: How Two Cultures Came Together to Make an American Dance. Written by Moira Rose Donohue, illustrated by Colin Bootman, and published on July 11, the book explores how the love of dancing shared by African Americans and Irish Americans led to tap, which combined elements from both cultures.
Tapping Feet presents a straightforward narrative that provides historical and cultural context, accompanied by clever rhymes that help set the mood. Striking, colorful illustrations take readers into the past to witness African Americans and Irish Americans in the country’s early days, along with their individual forms of dance. The book shows the turning point at which the two cultures came together in New York City, how tap emerged, some of the pioneers of the dance style, and how it grew to become true Americana.
According to Donohue, her own background as an Irish American and avid tap dancer born and raised in New York City put her on the path to writing Tapping Feet. “I fell in love with tap dancing from the moment I buckled on my first pair of tap shoes in college,” she explained. “A few years ago, I learned that a Broadway show about the origins of tap dance was being developed. The show was fictionalized. However, I was intrigued by the idea behind it and did a lot of research. The true story touched me, and I thought it was worth telling.”
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Moira Rose Donohue began writing for children after practicing banking law. Since then, she has written over forty books, mostly nonfiction—the truth and nothing but! Her titles have been Junior Library Guild selections and received starred reviews from Booklist and School Library Journal. Moira recently won the Florida Book Award Silver Medal for Young Children’s Literature. She and her dog currently live in St. Petersburg, FL, where Moira continues to take tap dancing lessons.
ABOUT THE ILLUSTRATOR:
Colin Bootman was born in Trinidad, where the vibrant palette of the Caribbean influenced his painting. When he was seven, he moved to the United States, where he studied art and illustration. Colin has illustrated many books for children and won the Coretta Scott King Illustrator Honor Award in 2004. In 2017, he won the NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Literary Works for Children. All of Colin’s award-winning illustrations demonstrate his impressive ability to frame moments of life.
The author expressed her enthusiasm for the way Bootman’s illustrations brought her words to life. “Colin’s magical artistry gave movement to every page,” she said. “The reader can feel the dancers twirl, swirl, tap, and flap! I almost expected them to tap their way off the page!”
Donohue added that Tapping Feet contains a message that she hopes will touch young readers’ hearts and minds. “If we respect other cultures and share with and learn from each other,” she said, “we can create richer forms of expression with broad appeal—like tap dance!”
In its review, Kirkus called Tapping Feet an “inspirational and informative” tale of two cultures that “might spark a love of tap in young readers.”
ABOUT REYCRAFT BOOKS: Reycraft Books partners with award-winning and up-and-coming authors and illustrators, primarily from underrepresented communities, to provide high-quality books that delight, inform, and honor the voice and vision of all children. Founded in 2019, the imprint publishes authentic stories—engaging picture books, chapter books, middle grade books, graphic novels, and more—that build knowledge, perspective, and connection, meeting the diverse needs of children, families, and educators.