Sigfried's Smelly Socks by Len Foley

[elmchenry]

[Following is a volunteer review of "Sigfried’s Smelly Socks!" by Len Foley.]

[rbc=4]id224752-125[/rbc]As I opened [i]Sigfried's Smelly Socks[/i] by Len Foley, I was touched by the dedication: to the author’s daughters, or at least two girls he knows well enough to tell the world about their smelly socks. These real-life connections are meaningful to adults who read picture books to young children. In addition, when the reader explains the purpose of a dedication page to a child, the idea of “author” becomes less abstract when the child knows that the author is a real person.



The premise of the book – very smelly things and their comparison to Sigfried’s socks – is entertaining for young children. This could easily be incorporated into a preschool or kindergarten day. The mixed-media illustrations make each page interesting. The banana photograph surrounded by hand-drawn characters and sketched lines to connect the images inspired me to keep reading to find out what other interesting combinations of drawing and photography the author created.



The author included a wide variety of vocabulary, perfect for the developing language of young children. Words like “clump” and “blubber” are not necessarily read in most books, so this would be a great text for learning about adjectives in an elementary classroom.



However, as I continued to read the book, I noticed several instances of non-rhyme. If similar-sounds were consistent, that would be fine. However, young children should hear actual rhymes in their books if the prose is meant to be as such, not intermingled with similar-sounding word pairs.



I was also troubled by the majority white characters. There are plenty of books with white-only characters, and this book adds to that picture book genre. In addition, most – if not all – of the characters are male, even though the book was inspired by two girls.



The plot took a confusing twist when the narrator introduced his uncle, which I did not think was a necessary component to the story. Had the narrator, Sigfried, been responsible for all the smelly things happening to the book, the reader would have enjoyed the book just as well.



The book ends with a favorite silly theme for most young children. Any bedtime routine would be complete by reading the final page, hinted at a few times on the preceding pages but revealed in all its crowned glory on the final, soapy page. Overall, I rate this book a 2 out of 4 stars simply because many children will enjoy the book (and that is what reading is all about), but I have some issues with the prose and character representation.

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Sigfried’s Smelly Socks!
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