The Picture Book Buzz - Interview w/Rebecca Hirsch and Review of Fancy Feet

2 minutes ago
10 min read

Rebecca E. Hirsch is a plant biologist, master gardener, and lifelong nature lover who holds a Ph.D. in the life sciences.

She lives in State College, Pennsylvania, where she and her husband raised their three children, and where she now grows gardens, wrangles chickens, and walks in the woods with her dog.

Collage of four book covers of Rebecca's recent books.

Rebecca is the author of 100 books, including Wonder Wings: Guessing Who's Flying, illustrated by Sally Soweol Han; Night Creatures: Animals That Swoop, Crawl, and Creep while You Sleep illustrated by Sonia Possentini; and Plants Can't Sit Still and Rise to the Sky: How the World’s Tallest Trees Grow Up, both illustrated by Mia Posada.

For more information on Rebecca Hirsch, see our earlier interviews (here), (here), (here) and (here).

Her newest nonfiction picture books are 150,000 Trees: Growing a Memorial for 9/11's Flight 93, illustrated by Jacqueline Tam, which releases on June 9, and Fancy Feet: Guess Who's Walking, illustrated by Sally Soweol Han, which releases on June 16.

Welcome back, Rebecca.

What has been the most interesting or odd experience (you’re willing to share) of your children’s literature career so far?

What a great question! The most interesting times are when I can get outside and do fieldwork. Sometimes that work can look quite exciting, like the winter I spent several nights on the Chesapeake Bay in a small boat with a team of scientists catching seabirds. Other times that work can look mundane—just me sitting in a quiet spot with a journal, sketching flowers or observing the sounds around me—but I find the work fascinating.

They both sound like wonderful experiences! What was your inspiration or spark of curiosity for 150,000 Trees: Growing a Memorial for 9/11's Flight 93?

Book cover - a wall of different evergren trees species are behind the title.

In 2012, I saw a call for volunteers to plant trees at the Flight 93 National Memorial in Shanksville, PA. That call was the start of a massive decade-long reforestation project, which was badly needed because the land where Flight 93 crashed on 9/11 had previously been damaged by years of heavy coal mining. When I realized that my fourteen-year-old daughter, Anna, was old enough to volunteer, I asked her to join me.

Photo of Rebecca, daughter , and 6 other volunteers planting trees at the memorial.

On a cold morning in April, Anna and I rose before dawn and made the 90-minute drive from our home to Shanksville to plant trees.

Photo of Rebecca Hirsch and husband planting trees at the memorial.

I returned to the memorial with my husband in 2022, the final year of the reforestation effort, and again planted trees. That's when I began to see the possibilities for a picture book about hope and healing.

How exciting for you all to be able to participate in this memorial effort. What was the hardest or most challenging aspect of researching and/or writing 150,000 Trees? How hard was it to find an angle that hadn’t been done before about 9/11?

The hardest part came when I sat down to research into what had happened to the passengers and crew members of Flight 93 on September 11th. That research was really tough. For a time, I cried every time I sat down to work on the book. After a while, I was able to focus my research on the creation of the memorial, and that was much easier, because it gave me a sense of people coming together to honor the victims, to wrest meaning from this horrific event.

I can only imagine how hard that was to write. I appreciate that you were able to struggle through it to create this special tribute to them and the volunteers honoring them. You also have a companion book for Wonder Wings: Guess Who’s Flying releasing this month. What inspired you to write Fancy Feet: Guess Who's Walking?

Book cover - various sizes of cut-out circles highlight various animal feet.

When my editor at Abrams Books for Kids acquired Wonder Wings: Guess Who's Flying, she told me right away she wanted to make it the first book in a series. I was thrilled with the opportunity to continue the inspiration, and a book on animal feet was the natural next step. (Groan!)

Was it easier or harder to write this sequel? Which took longer?

Writing Wonder Wings was much harder and took me a lot longer. With Wonder Wings, I really had to struggle to figure out what the book wanted to be about. It took some trial and error before I landed on a rhyming guessing book about wings. Then I had to teach myself to write in rhyme. For me, learning to rhyme was not an easy process.

Fancy Feet was much easier because I had already ironed out a structure. But even knowing the structure, writing in rhyme still comes slowly for me. My process involves drafting many different versions of each verse before settling on one that works. So, Fancy Feet still had to go through many rounds of revisions.

Aw, I guess rhyme will through a wrench into the "ease" of making a sequel. At least the structure was set. How long did it take from the first draft to publication for 150,000 Trees? Was this similar to your previous nonfiction books?

150,000 Trees took about four years from first draft to publication. I did the research and writing in the summer and fall of 2022, after my final year of tree planting. The challenge was finding a structure that allowed me to tell the story accurately, even with the story's complex timeline. Then I had to make the writing sing. Considering the nature of the story, I really wanted the book to be moving, so I pulled out all the stops of lyrical writing. Then the manuscript went through several rounds of revisions with Tilbury House.

Thank you for sharing this with us. What was the most fun or fascinating part of writing 150,000 Trees?

Those days planting trees were remarkable. I was wowed by the spirit that flowed through the groups of volunteers. Some people had lost family, friends, or coworkers on 9/11. Other volunteers, like my family and me, just wanted to help. There was a sense of joy and purpose as we worked. It was very uplifting to be able to pay tribute to the passengers and crew members in this way.

I should point out that the work was not easy! To prepare coal-mined land for planting, workers use heavy machinery to rip deep furrows into the earth. That leaves the ground very rough and uneven. Rough ground, it turns out, is perfect for tree seedlings. But it's not so easy for tree planters! We had to leap over ditches and maneuver around boulders and enormous clumps of dirt. And the weather added an additional challenge. In 2012, the day was windy and bitterly cold. In 2022, rain had fallen the night before and enormous puddles filled the ditches. Often we had no choice but to plant a tree right in the middle of a puddle and issue an apology: Good luck, little guy. Sorry your roots are in a puddle. Hope you make it!

I think any tree planting volunteer endeavor has difficulties, but these sound particularly grueling. When you first saw Jacqueline Tam’s illustrations for 150,000 Trees did anything surprise or amaze you? What is your favorite spread?

I was thrilled when I learned that Jacqueline Tam would be illustrating 150,000 Trees. I find her art gorgeous and magical. I love how she manages to create scenes that look realistic but at the same time feel otherworldly. The actual Flight 93 National Memorial is a majestic and meditative space, and I felt Jacqueline's dreamy style would reflect both the story and the memorial very well. Here is a lovely spread showing the history of the land before coal mining:

Internal spread - on the left a squirrel runs up the trunk of a large tree. On the left, pockets of coal are seen underground, tickled by the tree's roots.

Text © Rebecca Hirsch, 2026. Image © Jacqueline Tam, 2026.

This illustration has energy and vitality while balancing the real and the dreamy.

What a fun way to show where the coal is found. And, when you first saw Sally Soweol Han’s illustrations for Fancy Feet did anything surprise or amaze you? What is your favorite spread?

Internal spread - on the left, a chimp's arma and legs hug the trunk of a tree in a jungle. On the right, a chimp hangs from a vine, while another chimps climbs up a tree trunk, both of their faces hidden by leaves.

Text © Rebecca Hirsch, 2026. Image © Sally Soweol Han, 2026.

It's so hard to pick a favorite! I loved Sally's art in Wonder Wings, so I knew the illustrations for Fancy Feet would be exceptional, and she continued to amaze me. I love the way she paints beautiful natural scenes, as well as the care and thought she uses to draw the creatures in each scene. I'll call out the jungle scene in which we see some kind of creatures (we can't quite see what they are, though we can guess!) climbing in the lush foliage. I love her small touches, like the details of the knuckles and toenails on the feet of the creatures. Those small details make the artwork so inviting.

It is fun how they appear to be hiding from the reader. Is there something you’d like to share from your research which did not make it into the book or back matter for either of these books?

For Fancy Feet, I wrote many verses that just didn't make the cut. I only had room for twelve verses.

Considering all the things with feet in the world, twelve verses isn't a lot! I created a master chart with all sorts of different creatures and what made their feet special. I wrote, and ultimately discarded, verses about elephants, sloths, horses, humans and many other things.

That must have been tough narrowing it down. Last question, who is your STEAM hero or heroine, living or dead (scientist, naturalist, author, teacher, etc.)? Why?

Wow, tough question. I have many STEAM heroes and heroines. I'm currently at work on a nonfiction YA book about Charles Darwin, and I'm in awe of him. He was a brilliant guy, yes. But he was also hard-working, kind, thoughtful, and attuned to small, ordinary living things that other people take for granted. He also tended to be full of self-doubt. I find him both inspiring and deeply relatable. It's been a lot of fun getting to know him as a real person through my research for this upcoming book.

Intriguing. That feels like an aspect of Darwin that not a lot of people are familiar with. I am excited to read this. Thank you, Rebecca for stopping by and sharing with us. It was wonderful to chat with you again.

Be sure to come back on Friday for the Perfect Picture Book #PPBF review of 150,000 Trees: Growing a Memorial for 9/11's Flight 93.

For more information about Rebecca Hirsch, or to contact her:

Website: http://www.rebeccahirsch.com/

Substack: https://rebeccaehirsch.substack.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rebeccaehirsch/

Review of Fancy Feet: Guess Whose Walking

While I will be reviewing 150,000 Trees: Growing a Memorial for 9/11's Flight 93 on Friday, I couldn't resist review Rebecca's sequel Fancy Feet: Quess Who's Walking as well. This is such a fun guessing book for kids.

Fancy Feet: Guess Who's Walking

Author: Rebecca Hirsch

Illustrator: Sally Soweol Han

Publisher: Abrams Books for Young Readers (June 16, 2026)

Ages: 4-8

Nonfiction

Themes:

Animal anatomy, poetry, guessing, and STEM.

Synopsis:

From the slimy snail to the jumping kangaroo, kids will delight in learning about the many fantastic feet of our world in this nonfiction picture book guessing game and companion to Wonder Wings from critically acclaimed creators Rebecca E. Hirsch and Sally Soweol Han.

Some feet swing from vines, some feet fly through the air, and some feet carry us to other worlds. Can you guess who these feet belong to?

Learn about the fantastic world of feet through rhyming riddles that will encourage little readers to guess along with every page turn. From butterflies to dinosaurs, garden snails to polar bears―each set of feet is unique, and each gets its due in this delightful nonfiction picture book.

Opening Lines:

Feet can dawdle, feet can dash.

Feet can spring and swing and splash.

Turn the pages, read the clues.

Can you guess whose feet are whose?

What I LOVED about this book:

This time, Sally Soweol Han's beautiful gouache, watercolors, color pencils, and soft pastel illustrations capture the magic of imagination as the diverse cast of kids pretend to be different animals.

Internal spread - on the left, two kids jump on a bedin kangaroo contumes, a boy wearing rain boots and hawk wings perches on a chair, and a girl curls up in a sleeping bag. On the right, a girl wades in a stream, kid in dinosaur costume snuggles with dad on couch, while another kid bounces in a frog costume, and one poses in a polar bear costume.

The illustrations alternate between full-page spreads - such as the next two, which feature a fun closeup of butterflies on a rainbow of flowers heads and then a zoomed out panorama of a mother and girl dancing in a field full of flowers and butterflies - and half-page spreads with an answer and the next rhyming question facing each other.

Using fun rhyming quatrains, Rebecca E. Hirsch creates a guessing game posing riddles for kids about all types of feet. From small garden snails to large leatherback turtles. Capturing the wonder of an amazing flying frog, the sure-footedness of a band mountain goats, or the power and athleticism of a mob of kangaroos.

Internal spread - on the left an adult leatherback turtle swims in the ocean, surrounded by little fish. On the right, front and back feet jump up from red desert dirt.

Across the outback, feet can jump—

sproing-ing, landing with a thump.

Athletic feet, enormous too.

These feet are on a . . .

Internal spread - a mob of kangaroos hop cross the Australian outback.

While most adults will easily guess this, and some kids as well, it's a great excuse for me to show you the wonderful way Sally Soweol Han uses zoomed in and panorama perspectives to highlight the animals and play along with the guessing element of the book. She also uses water, fog, or leaves to hide of obscure the animals before the reveal, when the question is on a double spread.

It is amazing how much stem information Rebecca E. Hirsch packs into the first three lines of her wonderful AABB quatrains. "In a frosted paradise,/ feet creep over slippery ice /with grippy pads and snowy hair." In this sequel, she brilliantly uses the final line refrain of, "These feet are on a . . . ." followed by a fun guessing page turn to highlight some expected, and unexpected, phenomenal feet. I have to say, I know about flying squirrels, but I never heard of a flying frog! I love that the final two poems include some unusual feet.

The back matter offers more detailed scientific information on the structure and uses of each of these remarkable feet in each of the featured entities. As well as a great collection of sources on feet. This is a wonderful read-aloud picture book sure to entrance kids with the stunning images, fun riddles, a few surprises, and lyrical verses.

Resources:

Photo example of making a plaster cast of an animal print.

grab a special adult and take a walk around the neighborhood, in the park, or on a trail. Look for any animal tracks. and make a plaster cast, take a photo, or draw an image of the print of the track(s). Keep a journal and record location, date, and size of the tracks you find. Check out from the library or buy a book to help you identify the animal prints.

Photo of NH Animla Track Printable Sheet.

go an animal print scavenger hunt. Use this track card with ruler from New Hampshire (or find one for your state) How many tracks can you find?

use playdough and make your own tracks with plastic animals. Check out these activity sheets from the Pacific Science Center for a matching game and exploration questions.