Fox in Socks
Fox in Socks is a children's book by Dr. Seuss, first published in 1965. It features two main characters, Fox (an anthropomorphic fox) who speaks almost entirely in densely rhyming tongue-twisters and Knox (a yellow anthropomorphic dog) who has a hard time following up Fox's tongue-twisters until the end.
Storyline
The book begins by introducing Fox and Knox along with some props (a box and a pair of socks). After taking those four rhyming items through several permutations, more items are added (chicks, bricks, blocks, clocks), and so on. As the book progresses, Fox describes each situation with rhymes that progress in complexity, with Knox periodically complaining about the difficulty of the tongue-twisters. Finally, as Fox gives Knox an extended dissertation on "Tweetle Beetles" who fight each other with paddles while standing in a puddle inside a bottle on a noodle-eating poodle, a fed-up Knox interrupts and pushes him into the bottle, calling it a "tweetle beetle noodle poodle bottled paddled muddled duddled fuddled wuddled fox in socks". He then thanks an astonished Fox for all the "fun" and takes leave.
Reception
Kirkus Reviews considered it an "amusing exercise for beginning readers", but noted that the tongue-twisters made little sense when removed from the context of their illustrations.[1]
In 1996, Publishers Weekly noted that it was the 25th-best-selling hardcover children's book of all time, with 2.95M copies sold.[2]
Adaptations
The tweetle beetle skit was featured in The Hoober-Bloob Highway, a 1975 CBS television special. Here, the skit was part of a job: that of a "famous tweetle beetle statistician. If you took on this job, you could be the world's greatest authority on tweetle beetle battlistics, if you study tweetle beetles and their ballistic characteristics". It ended by cutting back to the base, with Mr. Hoober-Bloob waving his arms around, covering his ears, and yelling, "Stop it! Stop it! I can't stand it! That world is a vastly cruddy, bloody bore!"
In 1965, the book was adapted as a record, narrated by Marvin Miller with music by Marty Gold and his orchestra. The album starts off with a slow reading of the book, followed by a faster reading.
References
- v
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- The Grinch
- Horton the Elephant
- Bartholomew Cubbins
- And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street
- The 500 Hats of Bartholomew Cubbins
- The King's Stilts
- The Seven Lady Godivas
- Horton Hatches the Egg
- McElligot's Pool
- Thidwick the Big-Hearted Moose
- Bartholomew and the Oobleck
- If I Ran the Zoo
- Scrambled Eggs Super!
- Horton Hears a Who!
- On Beyond Zebra!
- If I Ran the Circus
- How the Grinch Stole Christmas!
- The Cat in the Hat
- The Cat in the Hat Comes Back
- Yertle the Turtle and Other Stories
- Happy Birthday to You!
- One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish
- Green Eggs and Ham
- The Sneetches and Other Stories
- Dr. Seuss's Sleep Book
- Dr. Seuss's ABC
- Hop on Pop
- Fox in Socks
- I Had Trouble in Getting to Solla Sollew
- I Wish That I Had Duck Feet 1
- Come over to My House 1
- The Foot Book
- I Can Lick 30 Tigers Today! and Other Stories
- My Book about ME
- Mr. Brown Can Moo! Can You?: Dr. Seuss's Book of Wonderful Noises!
- The Lorax
- Marvin K. Mooney Will You Please Go Now!
- Did I Ever Tell You How Lucky You Are?
- The Shape of Me and Other Stuff
- There's a Wocket in My Pocket
- Great Day for Up!
- Wacky Wednesday 1
- Oh, the Thinks You Can Think!
- The Cat's Quizzer
- I Can Read with My Eyes Shut!
- Oh Say Can You Say?
- Hunches in Bunches
- The Butter Battle Book
- You're Only Old Once!
- I Am Not Going to Get Up Today!
- Oh, the Places You'll Go!
- Daisy-Head Mayzie 2
- My Many Colored Days 2
- Hooray for Diffendoofer Day! 2
- The Bippolo Seed and Other Lost Stories 2
- Horton and the Kwuggerbug and More Lost Stories 2
- What Pet Should I Get? 2
- Horse Museum 2
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- Helen Palmer (first wife)
- A Fish Out of Water
- Amazing World of Dr. Seuss Museum
- Beginner Books
- Dr. Seuss Enters., L.P. v. Penguin Books USA, Inc.
- Dr. Seuss Goes to War
- The Secret Art of Dr. Seuss
- Dr. Seuss National Memorial
- Geisel Award
- Geisel Library
- Geisel School of Medicine
- PM
- Political messages of Dr. Seuss
- Read Across America
- Seuss Landing