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KEEP YOUR SOCKS ON, ALBERT! by Linda Glaser

KEEP YOUR SOCKS ON, ALBERT!

by Linda Glaser & illustrated by Sally G. Ward

Pub Date: Feb. 1st, 1992
ISBN: 0-525-44838-1
Publisher: Dutton

The comical interplay between Albert, a little possum who is distressed because one of his favorite socks is missing, and his older sister Shirley, whose solution to Albert's problem is to take his mind off it by telling him a scary story he doesn't want to hear, amusingly recalls Rosemary Wells's delicious books about Max and Hazel. Though Albert's thwarting of his bossy sister is less resounding, it has its own charm. Thoroughly frightened of the ``zwibi'' that Shirley says is in his closet, Albert gets her to clean it out; later, when Shirley (who of course had the missing sock) tries to commandeer both socks for her toy monkey, Eli, because ``He says his feet are cold,'' Albert asserts himself and turns the tables by telling Eli a story: not scary, but funny. Ward's freely rendered pen drawings, with full color added, convey the subtleties of the interaction with precision and humor. Delightful, natural-sounding dialogue; unusually entertaining. (Easy reader. 3-8)