Review: Fox in Socks by Dr. Seuss

Title: Fox in Socks
Author: Dr. Seuss
Series: Stand-alone
Genre: Children’s (Ages 4-8)
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“This fox is a tricky fox. He’ll try to get your tongue in trouble.” Dr. Seuss gives fair warning to anyone brave enough to read along with the Fox in Socks, who likes to play tongue-twisting games with his friend Mr. Knox. “Here’s an easy game to play. Here’s an easy thing to say…. New socks. Two socks. Whose socks? Sue’s socks.” But Mr. Fox Socks isn’t about to let Knox off so easy.

Soon Goo-Goose is choosing to chew chewy gluey blue goo while tweetle beetles battle with paddles in a puddle (in case you were wondering, that’s called a “tweetle beetle puddle paddle battle”). Mr. Knox gets exasperated: “I can’t blab such blibber blubber! My tongue isn’t made of rubber.” But he catches on to the game before it’s all through.

One of Seuss’s best, this must-read-aloud classic is guaranteed to get many giggles out of readers young and old.

One of my favorite children’s books is Fox in Socks by Dr. Seuss.  Unfortunately, it’s also one of the least known books by Dr. Seuss.

I first encountered Fox in Socks when I was babysitting my nephew about 14 years ago.  He wanted me to read it to him and I’ve loved it ever since.  It’s basically a book full of tongue twisters and can only be enjoyed to its fullest extent if read aloud.

For my public speaking class in college, we were required to read Fox in Socks in front of the class, once before we had practiced and once after.  The teacher wanted to prove that you can say anything without trouble if practiced enough.  I used to be able to read Fox in Socks flawlessly.  However, now I get hung up on quite a few parts. If I put enough effort into it, I could be as good as I was.

There are a lot of parts to Fox in Socks that are just fun.  However, my favorite part is with the tweetle beetles.

Let’s have a little talk about tweetle beetles….

What do you know about tweetle beetles?  Well …

When tweetle beetles fight,
it’s called a tweetle beetle battle.

And when they battle in a puddle,
it’s a tweetle beetle puddle battle.

AND when tweetle beetles battle with paddles in a puddle,
they call it a tweetle beetle puddle paddle battle.

AND …

When beetles battle beetles in a puddle paddle battle
and the beetle battle puddle is a puddle in a bottle …
… they call this a tweetle beetle bottle puddle paddle battle muddle.

AND …

When beetles fight these battles in a bottle with their paddles
and the bottle’s on a poodle and the poodle’s eating noodles …
… they call this a muddle puddle tweetle poodle beetle noodle
bottle paddle battle.

AND …

Now wait a minute, Mr. Socks Fox!

When a fox is in the bottle where the tweetle beetles battle
with their paddles in a puddle on a noodle-eating poodle,

THIS is what they call …
… a tweetle beetle noodle poodle bottled paddled
muddled duddled fuddled wuddled fox in socks, sir!

Fox in socks, our game is done, sir.
Thank you for a lot of fun, sir.

For your reading pleasure, you can read Fox in Socks here.  Of course, reading the book is much better because you get to look at all the wonderful Dr. Seuss characters and pictures.