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 humanoid) who has a hard time following up Fox's tongue-twisters until the end.
 | |
| Author | Dr. Seuss |
|---|---|
| Illustrator | Dr. Seuss |
| Cover artist | Dr. Seuss |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Children's Literature |
| Publisher | Random House |
Publication date | June 19, 1965 (Renewed in 1993) |
| Publication place | United States |
| Media type | Print (hardcover and paperback) |
| ISBN | 978-0-39-490038-4 |
| OCLC | 304375 |
| Preceded by | Hop on Pop |
| Followed by | I Had Trouble in Getting to Solla Sollew |
Storyline
editThe 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.
Writing and publication
editSeuss met Audrey Dimond while he was working on Fox in Socks, and she was the only one of the adults who could read the tongue twisters aloud.[1] Seuss dedicated the book to Audrey Dimond and Mitzi Long, describing them as members of the Mr. Soledad Lingual Laboratories despite no such place existing.[2] Seuss went on to marry Dimond in 1968.[3]
To test his editor Bennett Cerf, Seuss added the inappropriate line "Moe blows Joe's nose, Joe blows Moe's nose" to his manuscript of Fox in Socks. This followed a similar incident two years prior, when he added the word "contraceptive" to his manuscript of Hop on Pop.[4]
While he was working on Fox in Socks, Seuss published I Had Trouble in Getting to Solla Sollew.[5] Fox in Socks was published in fall of 1965.[2]
Analysis
editFox in Socks was one of two tongue twister books written by Dr. Seuss, alongside Oh Say Can You Say? (1979). In both cases, Seuss prioritized the sound and structure of the tongue twisters over coherence, resulting in heavy use of nonsensical phrases.[6] In one instance, the book describes a "tweetle beetle noodle poodle bottled paddled muddled duddled fuddled wuddled fox in socks".[7] In the story, Mr. Knox describes the tongue twisters as "blibber blubber".[8]
Seuss used Fox in Socks to demonstrate the different uses of words in different contexts.[9] The book uses simple words arranged in complex patterns, at one point saying that "Through three cheese trees three free fleas flew".[10] Such phrases retain appropriate word order. When describing a "tweetle beetle puddle paddle battle", Seuss couples paddle and battle to describe a "paddle battle" within the larger phrase. The word puddle then describes the setting of the battle, and tweetle beetle adds a descriptor for the type of "puddle paddle battle".[11]
The book's main characters are Mr. Knox and Mr. Fox. The latter is also described as Mr. Socks Fox.[12] Other named characters include Ben and Bim, Luke Luck, Slow Joe Crow, and Sue.[13] They are accompanied by several animals, including chicks, a duck, pigs, and a poodle,[14] as well as the fictional animals of a Goo-Goose and tweetle beetles.[15]
Fox in Socks expresses a common Seuss theme of optimism. The phrase "you can make" appears as a refrain at the beginning of several sentences.[16] It also features Seuss's respect for manners, having Mr. Knox refer to the Fox as "Mr. Fox, sir".[17] Like many books by Dr. Seuss, Fox in Socks includes joyous feasting, in this case portrayed with the Gooey Gluey Blue Goo being chewed on by the Goo-Goose.[18]
The book is one of several by Dr. Seuss in which younger characters teach older ones, as Mr. Fox is more skilled with tongue twisters and tries to instruct Mr. Knox.[19] The literary scholar Philip Nel considered Fox in Socks to be an example of a book that is avant-garde for adults but not for children. Under his reasoning, the deconstruction of language present in the book only works for those familiar with more typical linguistic structure, but young children lack the literary experience to be confused by this. Conversely, adults will expect the simple words to be easily read and be taken by surprise. A child will read the tongue twisters more carefully then adults, causing the book to be easier for children in a relative sense.[20]
Reception and legacy
editFox in Socks ranked 31st in a 2001 list of best-selling children's hardcover books in the United States by Publishers Weekly, and it was the 8th best-selling book by Dr. Seuss.[21]
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.[22]
The Oxford Companion to the English Language (1992) cites fourteen lines of Fox in Socks in its coverage of "compounds in context".[23]
The journalist Jonathan Cott listed Fox in Socks among Dr. Seuss's best examples of books that balance entertainment with educational value.[24]
Adaptations
editThe 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.
Notes
edit- ^ Morgan & Morgan 1996, p. 185.
- ^ a b Morgan & Morgan 1996, p. 187.
- ^ Nel 2004, p. 111.
- ^ Morgan & Morgan 1996, pp. 178–179.
- ^ Morgan & Morgan 1996, p. 186.
- ^ Nel 2004, p. 27.
- ^ Einhorn 2012, p. 115.
- ^ Lathem 2000, p. 14.
- ^ Einhorn 2012, p. 37.
- ^ Einhorn 2012, p. 116.
- ^ Bauer 2003, pp. 184–185.
- ^ Lathem 2000, p. 49.
- ^ Lathem 2000, pp. 10, 77, 114, 124.
- ^ Lathem 2000, p. 25, 38, 96, 99.
- ^ Lathem 2000, pp. 55, 133.
- ^ Einhorn 2012, p. 58.
- ^ Einhorn 2012, p. 85.
- ^ Shortsleeve 2011, p. 194.
- ^ Shortsleeve 2011, p. 196.
- ^ Nel 2015, pp. 272–274.
- ^ Nel 2004, p. 4.
- ^ Fox in Socks[permanent dead link], reviewed at Kirkus Reviews; published March 1, 1965; archived online, October 11, 2011; retrieved January 5, 2021
- ^ Morgan & Morgan 1996, pp. 291–292.
- ^ Cott 1997, p. 121.
References
edit- Bauer, Laurie (2003). Introducing Linguistic Morphology. Edinburgh University Press. ISBN 978-1-4744-6428-4.
- Cott, Jonathan (1997). "The Good Dr. Seuss". In Fensch, Thomas (ed.). Of Sneetches and Whos and the Good Dr. Seuss: Essays on the Writings and Life of Theodor Geisel. McFarland & Company. pp. 99–124. ISBN 0-7864-2447-8.
- Einhorn, Lois (2012). Why Do We All Love Dr. Seuss?: Discovering the Mystery and Magic of an Icon. Robert D. Reed Publishers. ISBN 978-1-934759-58-5.
- Lathem, Edward Connery (2000). Who's Who & What's What in the Books of Dr. Seuss. Dartmouth College.
- Morgan, Judith; Morgan, Neil (1996). Dr. Seuss and Mr. Geisel: A Biography. Da Capo Press. ISBN 978-0-306-80736-7.
- Nel, Philip (2004). Dr. Seuss: American Icon. Continuum Publishing. ISBN 0-8264-1434-6.
- Nel, Philip (2015). "Surrealism for Children: Paradoxes and Possibilities". In Druker, Elina; Kümmerling-Meibauer, Bettina (eds.). Children's Literature and the Avant-garde. John Benjamins Publishing Company. ISBN 978-90-272-0159-1.
- Shortsleeve, Kevin (2011). "The Cat in the Hippie: Dr. Seuss, Nonsense, the Carnivalesque, and the Sixties Rebel". In Vallone, Lynne; Mickenberg, Julia L. (eds.). The Oxford Handbook of Children's Literature. Oxford University Press. pp. 188–209. ISBN 978-0-19-994018-9.
