by Steve Martin

Created on: January 20, 2007   Last Updated: May 08, 2007

Fox in Socks, by Dr. Seuss, refers to itself as "A Tongue Twister for Super Children". You'll see why if you attempt to read this book aloud to children. The rhyme involves Fox teaching tongue twisters to his suffering colleague, Mr. Knox; until, at the end, Mr. Knox has his revenge. The tongue twisters gradually increase in difficulty as the book progresses.

As in his other publications, there is a pure joy in words and sounds that comes from the book. This is a joy shared by children, who delight in the silliness of the verses. This is a useful book to introduce to early readers. Besides the usual reliance on rhyme, great use is also made of assonance and alliteration. The result is a piece of writing that is excellent for working on the sounds of words.

The great value of the books of Dr. Seuss, however, lies not in their value as teaching aids. Superb as they are in this regard, the reason Dr. Seuss books are so widely read, listened to and love, is that the author has the imagination to use very simple words to create marvellously memorable verses. Merely because the vocabulary is limited does not mean that a book needs to be ordinary or boring.

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