Book: Socks!
Author: Tania Sohn
Pages: 36
Age Range: 3-7 (small format picture book)
Socks! is a charming little picture book by Tania Sohn about the joy that young children take in their their socks. Socks! features a young Korean girl and her gray cat. On each page, with minimal text, the girl celebrates a different kind of socks. Like this:
"I love socks!
Socks with polka dots,
and socks with stripes.
Green socks so I can hop...
... and yellow socks so I can play."
The above text spans three page spreads. In each, the girl dances about with her cat, and wears a different pair of socks. The "so I can play" accompanies a picture of a bunch of soccer players, each shown from the stomach down. The cat pokes between what we suspect are the protagonist's legs.
The final pair of socks are "Beoseon! Treaditional Korean socks, from Grandma." Up until that point, though the girl is Korean in her features, the book could be set anywhere.
Sohn's illustrations are what make the book. The girl's joy in her various pairs of socks leaps from the page. We see the texture of the cat, and of the girl's hair, and of the various backgrounds, like the grass of the soccer field. My favorite illustration is one where the girl peeks through a doorway at "Christmas socks!" (stockings). We only see her from behind here, but her posture conveys her giddy excitement.
Socks! is a quick read, but one that preschoolers everywhere (especially girls) will appreciate. Socks! is an import from South Korea. It is available from Usborne Books, but is not available on Amazon. I do hope that libraries find it, however, because it is a tiny gem of a book. I can't wait to share it with my daughter, who gleefully showed off her new socks to me earlier today.
Publisher: Kane Miller
Publication Date: 2014
Source of Book: Review copy from the publisher
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© 2014 by Jennifer Robinson of Jen Robinson's Book Page. All rights reserved. You can also follow me @JensBookPage or at my Growing Bookworms page on Facebook.
