New Socks

Something new can change the way you look; it can change the way you feel; and, in the case of new socks, it can change the way you walk—especially if you're a chicken. With a quirky sense of humor, retro style, and hip attitude, Bob Shea captures the excitement one irresistible chick experiences when he puts on a brand new pair of socks.

This is for readers who have decided that they can wear nothing but their superman capes or tutus or have discovered that the only food worth eating is macoroni and cheese. In other words, this book is told with "kid logic" and it embraces the affection we have for things when they're brand new.

Something new can change the way you look; it can change the way you feel; and, in the case of new socks, it can change the way you walk—especially if you're a chicken. With a quirky sense of humor, retro style, and hip attitude, Bob Shea captures the excitement one irresistible chick experiences when he puts on a brand new pair of socks.

This book is perfect for imaginative readers who always wear their superhero capes or who accessorize every outfit with a magic wand.

Publishers Weekly

Slick digital design and silly antics rule the roost in this paper-over-board celebration of footwear, narrated by an excitable young chicken. "Notice anything different about me?" the peep asks. "Nope, it's not my glasses," he adds, pointing the squiggly line of his wing at the heavy black frames around his black-dot eyes. A close-up of his feet reveals two reasons for his apparent delight: "I got New Socks!" Where the chick's yellow body is a double-yolk kidney bean shape, with black sticks for legs and just a hint of chatty beak, his bulbous orange socks look like inflated moon boots, with a star-shaped sparkle on one toe to indicate their pristine condition. The chick skates across a wood floor and, at the playground, calls out, "Watch me not be scared on the big-kids slide! In New Socks!" Graphic designer Shea uses animation techniques akin to Mo Willems, from emphatic first-person statements to iconic illustrations to near-empty backdrops of minimalist white and robin's-egg-blue. This comic sequence holds up as an exercise in dynamic layout, but like its title product, it seems unlikely to seem fresh after repeated use. Ages 3-6. (Apr.)

Bob Shea is the author of Big Plans, illustrated by Lane Smith, as well as his own Race You to Bed and Dinosaur vs. Bedtime, which was selected as a Best Book of the Year by Amazon, a Bulletin Blue Ribbon by The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books, and a Horn Book Fanfare by The Horn Book. Bob lives in Connecticut with his family.