Sock Monkey Goes to Hollywood: A Star Is Bathed ANNOTATION
When Sock Monkey is nominated for an Oswald Award as Best Supporting Toy in a motion picture, his friends help make him clean enough to attend the ceremony.
FROM THE CRITICS
Publishers Weekly
Those who resist laundering their plush toys (or bathing themselves) will appreciate Bell's imaginatively silly debut. In this mock Tinseltown saga, a smudged Sock Monkey tears open an invitation to an award ceremony. "He was a nominee for Best Supporting Toy in a motion picture!" But alas, the card stipulates that "Nominees must be clean." Sock Monkey dimly recalls being spotless once, but flashbacks show him nuzzling an ice cream cone, sliding into home plate and dancing in a mud puddle. Now, he fears washing. "A bath will make me nothing more than a blotchy, lumpy, shrunken monkey!" he says. His unsoiled friends, including Miss Bunn (a pink rabbit), Froggie and Blue Pig, gently urge him to lather in "the warm Simian Springs," rinse in "the perfectly pure Lilypad Pond" and dry on "the hot Sahara Sands." Bell uses smooth areas of color and jokey word balloons in her playful digital art. Sock Monkey's nubby weave, which goes from mottled gray-brown to distinct brown and white, becomes the focal point of every page. After her tongue-in-cheek description of Sock Monkey's spa treatment, the author pictures him in a tuxedo, walking down the red carpet on his noodly legs. In the Hollywood-ending tradition, she allows him to thank those who helped make his achievement possible. By turning the spotlight on a generic toy, Bell wittily calls attention to Sock Monkey's peers, the great unwashed. Ages 4-up. (Sept.) Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.
Children's Literature - Kathie M. Josephs
Sock Monkey receives an invitation to the Oswald Awards for the Best Supporting Toy. Unfortunately, Sock Monkey's excitement turns to dread and when he learns that all nominees must be clean. His busy life had changed him from being an immaculate monkey to one who had never taken a bath and is now terribly dirty. Realizing he has no choice, he goes and asks all of his friends for help in getting clean. The reader then follows Sock Monkey on his amazing adventures in bathing. The big night arrives and Sock Monkey is looking absolutely terrific. A limo picks him up to take him to the awards show and Sock Monkey can hardly contain himself. The nominees are read for the best supporting toy in a motion picture... does he win? The ending is as good as the beginning and all the pages in between. This is a delightful book and children will look at it, read it, and carried it around like a favorite blanket. Cele Bell certainly outdid herself with this book. I can hardly wait for her next one. 2003, Candlewick Press, Ages 3 to 8.
School Library Journal
PreS-K-Sock Monkey, a famous actor, has been nominated for Best Supporting Toy in a motion picture. However, the invitation states that in order to attend the "Oswald Awards," nominees must be clean. Long ago, the stuffed animal was spotless, but he has never taken a bath. Determined to attend the ceremony, he turns to his friends Miss Bunn, Froggie, and Blue Pig for help. Although the monkey does not win the award, he feels "prouder and cleaner than he had ever felt in his whole life" when he bounces up to the stage to receive "The Ichabod Thalburg Award" for the cleanest nominee. Parody abounds, although it's unlikely that the audience for this book will be able to appreciate most of it. (Other stars are nominated for their roles in: "Dirty Larry," "Kids, I Shrunk the Honey," and "Charlotte's Wet.") However, youngsters will recognize this ubiquitous toy and enjoy some of the visual humor in the computer art. A simple story with a Hollywood ending.-Olga R. Kuharets, Broward County Libraries, Fort Lauderdale, FL Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.
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