Coming from anybody else, I wouldn't think a book about socks could be particularly enjoyable but as soon as I heard that this was by the great Nick Sharratt, I couldn't wait to have a look. After all, he made Pants funny ! 10-year-old Sophie was also enthusiastic and I couldn't work out where she'd have heard of him, but it's because he did the artwork for the Story of Tracy Beaker book and she recognised his pictures !
2-year-old Pierre was instantly drawn by the bright colours and spent ages turning the pages and looking at the pictures before I started reading it to him. (Because funnily enough, I was busy sorting out the socks from the tumble drier, which is why he's surrounded by socks - very apt !) The drawings actually took me back to my childhood when I used to read Twinkle magazine and they had an ongoing competition where you had to draw around an ice lolly stick and use that as the basis for a picture. (I bet there would be uproar these days for encouraging kids to eat sugary treats !!) Looking at the way socks have been transformed into all manner of creatures and objects was great fun and will surely inspire a wet afternoon drawing session here at The Madhouse !
Now, if ever a book was written to be read aloud, this is it. With its repetitive Socky-Wocky-Doodah refrain and endless play on words with all things socky - you'll discover sockodiles, socksophones and sockerels, amongst other things ! - kids will be giggling and joining in within a few pages. After a couple of reads, I would point to the things in the pictures and the girls would chime in with the socky words, which they thought was great fun !
While Pierre loved pointing at things in the pictures, big sister Juliette preferred giving the proper "desocked" words from the text and they've both been asking for me to read it over and over again.
It is quite expensive at £10.99, but you do get a lovely hardbook back and I'm sure you'll find a much lower price if you look around online.
In the words of Nick Sharratt himself, it's definitely socktastic, especially if the Madhouse Mini-testers' reaction is anything to go by !
star rating : 4.5/5
RRP : £10.99
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Hehe, this sounds fab! And I'm always a fan of big bright hardbacks!
ReplyDeleteThis looks fun - I'm going to check my local library!!
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