3 out of 4 stars
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I would rate Sigfried’s Smelly Socks with 3 out of 4 stars. The story discusses a variety of items that smell and the reasons behind some of the smells on the lost book. Sigfried hides his dirty, smelly socks under his bed, where the book was hidden. The author details how many different stains and smells on the book due to his family's actions, but the main smells seem to come from the dirty socks. At the end of the book, Sigfried decides to wash his socks in a surprising location, that the kids will get a laugh from.
Based on my experience as a teacher, I know many children would enjoy this book due to the way it is written with fun fonts and use of familiar items and terminology, and because children love books about smelly or gross things. I enjoyed the use of rhyming words, colors, and patterns used throughout the book. The book also brings about a touch of pretend, because the story uses words and pictures to help the student to understand the smells and to bring them to the student’s mind. The use of imagery is a wonderful thing for students to experience and to help them imagine and explore stories.
Something that I would have liked to have seen to give the story a higher rating would have been visuals to go with what the socks smelled like. For example, when Sigfried discusses that a sock smells like a skunk then a picture of a skunk would help with the illustration and understanding of the words. The use of other pictures did help bring the story to life, especially since parts of the story pointed to the item that was being named as a possible cause for the smells. The fly’s words on page eight are very small and hard to read, it would have been nice if these words were pointed to or if the words were bigger.
Overall, the book discusses a variety of smelly objects and actions that create smells. A question brought to mind: was why is it called Sigfried’s Smelly Socks when most of the book deals with the smells on the book? The book did leave me wondering why so much of the story was dedicated to Uncle Kato’s ability to cause or leave things that smell badly. Since so much of the story has Uncle Kato’s actions involved in it, I would have thought that maybe he would have had some input into why at least some of Sigfried’s socks smell.
Another item of concern is the story's discussion of how the book was misused. With this being a children's story, there should be some situations are dramatized for storytelling, but some children may not understand that there are specific things you do not do with books, such as wiping one’s nose or storing food in between the pages as a bookmark. I believe this story could be used as a social story for teachers to utilize when they discuss the appropriate way to handle and care for books, as a good example of what not to do, especially since so many of the actions were "what not to dos". Overall, I rate the book with 3 out of 4 stars, and I think that children will enjoy the story.
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Sigfried’s Smelly Socks!
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