Smelly Socks by children's author Robert Munsch is a wonderful story that takes its inspiration from a Dene girl named Tina who lived in Hay River, Northwest Territories. On one of Munsch's storytelling events in Canada's North during the 1980s he met a young girl named Tina Fabian. Since the audience for this reading was small, Munsch created individualized stories for each child present. On that day Tina was wearing multicoloured socks and so Robert Munsch made up a story about these socks on the spot. Years later the author has turned that event into his recent children's book where a girl named Tina wears a pair of multicoloured socks. The story is set in the North and the main character named Tina lives in a small community with only one clothing store. Tina loves socks and wants a special pair. Selection is limited but Tina knows there is a specialty sock store in the town across the river from her community. With no bridge or other access to the town except by boat, Tina convinces her grandfather to take her across the river in his small motor boat. Unfortunately the motor isn't working and Tina's grandfather has to row the pair across the river. When Tina arrives at the sock store she is amazed at the selection and finds a special pair of socks. She is so happy with her purchase that she never wants to take off her beautiful socks. Her mother begs Tina to just take off the socks for a little while so they can be laundered. But Tina refuses because they are wonderful socks and again she vows to never remove them. After many days and even weeks, her classmates beg Tina to take off her socks and wash them. The smell even affects the local moose, geese and skunk population who run far away from Tina and her smelly socks. Finally her friends take the matter into their own hands and carry Tina to the river. Into the river Tina goes along with her socks and her friends scrub them clean. From this the fish in the river appear to die. But Tina's socks are now clean and no longer smell. Tina realizes that clean socks smell and look nice so she decides that she shall wear clean socks from now on. The animals and geese return and even the fish that looked dead come back to life. Tina's mother willingly rewards Tina with the promise of a new multicoloured sweater when Tina agrees that clean socks are a good thing. But on the last page of this picture book, the reader knows that a smelly sweater may be in Tina's future. The illustrated book shows readers from southern Canada some of the economic limitations of living in the north. In addition the book draws a subtle connection to environmental pollution. But in the end, this Robert Munsch story is just a humourous story about smelly socks. This title is also available in a French edition, Tes Chaussettes Sentent la Mouffette! A hardcover edition is also available. Lexile Level: 680; Guided Reading Level: O; DRA Level: 34-38; RL: 3.6
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