Here’s my selection for Perfect Picture Book Friday:
The Sock Thief
Author Ana Crespo
Illustrator Nana Gonzalez
Albert Whitman & Company, 2015
Fiction
Suitable for: Ages 4-7
Theme/Topic: Resourcefulness, Soccer/Futebol, Portuguese, Brazil
Opening Spread: In a small Brazilian town, Felipe leaves home earlier than usual. He walks a long way to school.
Brief Synopsis: From author’s website: Felipe doesn’t have a soccer ball. So, when it’s his turn to take one to school, he uses a little bit of creativity…and a few socks. Felipe is the sock thief, but finding socks is not that easy and the neighborhood pets make it even harder. “Au, au, au!” a dog barks in Portuguese. Along the way, Felipe leaves delicious mangoes in exchange for the socks he steals. After he swipes each pair, he twists and turns them into an ever-growing soccer ball.
Resources: Instructions on How to make a Sock Ball. Go out and play soccer with your own sock ball. Read the Author’s Note and share a story from your own childhood. A Portuguese glossary is included. Please check Ana’s website as more resources may be added.
Why I Like This Book: I like that Felipe is a bit naughty in his efforts to make a soccer ball. Of course, this sock thief leaves mangoes and even returns the socks. You’ll see at the end, the sock owners know what’s happening to their socks too.
I know Ana through SCBWI. She’s super talented and nice. And, I get to hang out with her and several ladies at a weekly critique meeting. The book has a March 2015 publication date, but I pre-ordered her book (that’s what writers do, right?) and it magically arrived this week. If your library doesn’t have it yet, be sure to put in a request. I did that with our local library.
Ana is giving away several copies of The Sock Thief on Goodreads. Check out the giveaway.
For more PPBF books, visit Susanna Leonard Hill’s Blog.
What a neat way to meet the neighborhood dogs. Heehee! Hope the library has this on order already, but I’ll make sure they do. And congratulations to Ana!
Oh, you made me giggle Julie. Thanks for making sure your library gets a copy!
Nice! Fun story and it will be great for storytime. Bring in all those single socks and the kids can practice making their own sock balls! Congrats Ana!
Ah, now that’s a fun activity Cathy! Great thinking.
When I first read the title I thought the story was going to be about a mischievous clothes dryer.
This book looks adorable!
Haha, Mike! So did I!
Not this time Mike, sooo you need to write the clothes dryer book!
I, too, was expecting a story about the dryer. Mike, it’s time for you to write it. 😀
Oh this looks awesome! I love soccer and I love learning bits and pieces of new languages so this sounds like my kind of book.
Hope you enjoy it Heather. I also enjoy books with a different language sprinkled throughout the story.
I like that the main character is naughty, too. Seems like a valuable way to a kid’s heart. I am goiing to make sure it is on order in my library as well.
Congrat’s Ana! 🙂
Thanks for requesting this one Clara. I hope you enjoy it.
I dig a little naughty!!! Sweet book. I thought it was the dryer eating them all this time. Who would have known?!
No. It’s Felipe getting them to make a ball!
Very creative way to make soccer ball especially in Brazil where soccer is so important. Sounds like such a sweet but entertaining book.
It is sweet and entertaining.
This looks adorable! Especially when the “naughty” is actually endorsed. Congratulations to Ana!
True. The endorsement helps. After I wrote this, I thought more about the community aspect of the endeavor.
This book looks terrific, Stacy, and how cool that you know Ana! 🙂 I will have to get this on my TBR list straight-away! Thanks so much for the publication heads-up and for adding this fun book to our list! 🙂
Ana is very nice and it is cool to know her! 🙂 I hope you enjoy the book.
What a great story! A bit of cheekiness, gumption, imagination and generosity with the mangoes. I’d rather have a mango than a sock but you can’t wear a mango on your foot 😉
What a great book! This would be perfect to pair with the One World Play Project, the folks who have already distributed over a million balls worldwide. Check it out: http://www.oneworldplayproject.com/power-of-play/our-story/
That looks like a great program. Thanks for sharing it Jilanne.
This one looks FABULOUS – love the Portuguese angle and the ready-made activity! Thanks, Stacy!
I love books with a little language lesson.
This one looks fun on a whole lot of levels!! I need to learn how to make one of those sock balls!!! I’m going to be sniffing this one out! Thanks Ms Jensen!!!
Hope you can sniff out a copy Rhythm!
I love this. How often have I seen homemade footballs in developing nations? This is awesome!
It is awesome. Thanks Joanna.
Thank you so much, everyone, for all the positive comments! And thanks, Stacy, for writing such a great post about THE SOCK THIEF. Have a wonderful weekend!
Thanks for stopping by Ana! Thanks for sharing The Sock Thief with all of us. Have a great weekend.
This sounds super cute. I will definitely check it out. Thanks for telling me about it.
Yay, Ana! It’s so nice to see this book out as scheduled! Hope for all picture book writers :-). I remember your good news when you met the editor at a Letters & Lines Conference and am so happy for your success. The book sounds wonderful and I can’t wait to see it!
Thank you, Denise! It all seems so unreal…sometimes I have to pinch myself. RMC-SCBWI is a huge part of this accomplishment, which means you are too.
It’s a great organization, for sure, and you are wonderful to share your success with so many. Your talent and persistence made it happen and I’m very grateful to have been a witness!
You comment about as scheduled made me giggle a bit. We discovered at our SCBWI schmooze on Sunday that those of us with pre-orders likely received ours early since we are Amazon Prime members. 🙂
Ah, another benefit of being a prime member! I was having a little publishing envy. I looked back and saw the “tentative” pub date for Ana’s first book was Spring 2015 and then it came out in Spring 2015–a near miracle in my experience! A PB of mine acquired in Oct 2013 had a tentative of 2015 which I laughed at and hoped for 2016. It’s officially Spring 2017 :-). But I’m cool with that. I can wait and in the meantime celebrate the publication of books by my pals!
definitely putting this on my to-read list! Who doesn’t love a story about mischievous kids, missing socks, and mangos – er, I mean soccer.
It’s a fun one Sue.
Cute. 3D pictures/illustration too… I like naughty, just a little. 🙂