Book Review: Fox in Socks

(For those of you who read this for the pictures, I should warn you that there aren’t any pictures in this post.  But it is chock-full of Margaret anecdotes).

I was reading another blog last night (because if you had to sit on the couch and feed Ellie four and a half hours out of the twenty-four, you’d find yourself reading a lot of things), and the author was doing book reviews from her perspective and from her child’s perspective, and it struck me that I spend a lot of time reading aloud to Margaret, and it would be nice to record her reactions to books before they vanish into the mists of my sleep-deprived brain.  I’m starting with Fox in Socks, a classic Dr. Seuss title, because I just read it to her before leaving her reading it (and her orange cookbook) and hoping that she’ll take a nap.  So my impressions are fresh, but I’m not sure that I’m going to be able to quote it exactly, because she has my copy.  I apologize.

Margaret’s review: This book is great.  It’s got a fox.  And he’s wearing socks.  And sometimes the socks are on his hands, which is FUNNY.*  Also, there is someone named Sue who also wears socks.  And then there is goo, a duck, and OH MY GOSH, THERE ARE NOODLES.  I DIDN’T NOTICE THAT THE TWENTY-FIVE THOUSAND TIMES THIS BOOK WAS READ TO ME BEFORE, BUT NOW I KNOW WHAT NOODLES ARE, AND NOODLES!!

Hey, it’s over.  Huh.  Now read me something else, Mommy.

Summary: Really good book, with lots of my favorite things, but now that it’s over, we can look at something else.

My review: Oh goody.  Tongue twisters.  Again.  I thought I “disappeared” this book once.  Apparently cleaning under her bed was a dumb idea.  Oh well, here goes.

Does anyone else think that Knox looks a lot (and behaves a lot) like the non-Sam character in Green Eggs and Ham?  Is it the same?  Where is Green Eggs and Ham?  Should I compare them?  Is it the book that’s digging into my back in bed? And even if the artwork isn’t as similar as  I’m remembering, isn’t it interesting that Dr. Seuss has created such similar characters, the put-upon straight-man for the zany characters?  Oh, we’re coming to the bricks and blocks.  The pronunciation may actually take some concentration here.  Back in a minute.

Also, why Fox and Knox?  Does this have something to do with major figures in the Reformation?  Should I be reading this allegorically?  And if I am, does that make Sue the Whore of Babylon?  That’s probably a little deep for a children’s book.  Also, I can’t really fit the new blue goo into this framework, so I’d better leave it.

Why the heck are Luke Luck and his duck licking lakes?  That is really silly.  As is the poodle/noodle intrusion in the tweetle beetle battle.  It’s only a rough rhyme, and I think he could have done better.  On the other hand, Margaret likes it.

Summary: Eh, it’s fine.  I have to pay a little more attention to it than I like, without the pay-off of a really good story, and I do want to know about Seussian stock characters.  Perhaps this is telling me I need to get out more.

*I wonder if this is the origin of her name for mittens, which is “handsocks.”  Also, she doesn’t know that foxes don’t have hands, and I don’t think that this book is likely to convince her that they do, because the fox behaves in a most unfoxy manner, walking around on his hind legs and tormenting people with tongue-twisters.