I Lost My Sock!: A Matching Mystery

PreS-Gr 1—Good-natured Ox tries to help Fox find his missing sock, but each sock he pulls out is notably different than the one on Fox's foot. Eventually, Ox gives up and prepares to leave, putting on his hat, at which point Fox shouts, "OX! YOU FOUND MY SOCK!" Though readers will recognize Fox's sock, Ox insists that the item he is wearing is a hat, which fits his head perfectly and is also the ideal place to store his oranges. A puzzled Fox asks Ox why he doesn't use his pockets, to which Ox replies, "Because I'm not wearing any pants." This line will get a laugh from kids, and Fox seems charmed as well, because he decides not only to let Ox keep his sock but also to give him the other. The illustrations, created with brush pen and Photoshop, are made up of simple shapes with thick black outlines and a limited color palette. Readers may be disappointed by text that at first seems to follow a rhyming scheme but moves out of it after several pages. This disrupts the flow slightly, especially when reading aloud. Regardless, the simple vocabulary and repetition could make this a good choice for beginning readers.