Boo!

Sylvia Pantaleo is an associate professor of education, specializing in
children’s literature, at the University of Victoria. She is the
co-author of Learning with Literature in the Canadian Elementary
Classroom.

Tina wants some colourful new socks. The store in town has only black
ones. Tina persuades her grandfather to take her across the river to buy
“some really good socks.” With no car, no access to a local bridge,
and a broken motor on the boat, Tina and her grandfather must row the
boat across the river. When they reach their destination, Tina tries on
millions of socks, finally selecting a pair that is yellow, red, and
green. She becomes so infatuated with her new socks that she refuses to
take them off. However, the aroma wafting from her smelly socks becomes
so offensive that Tina’s friends must take action. The story ends with
Tina asking her mother for a new red, yellow, and green sweater.

On Halloween night Lance wants to paint his face and make it so scary
that adults fall down when they view him. Although readers are told that
Lance paints worms, ants, snakes, green brains, and orange goop on his
face, they do not see his facial artwork until near the end of the book.
However, readers know that Lance’s face must be very frightening,
because the adults do fall over when he goes trick-or-treating. He even
scares a police officer who assists Lance in carrying home his huge sack
of candy. It seems that Lance has met his match when a teenager with a
scary face comes knocking at Lance’s door, but Lance’s painted face
is more hideous and the teenager flees, leaving behind a gigantic bag of
candy.

Both Tina and Lance are energetic and determined characters. The
narrative of Smelly Socks is more engaging and has more substance than
the narrative of Boo! In each book, the structure of the plot, the
depiction of the child and adult characters, and the use of language
(hyperbole and repetition) are all classical Munsch. Martchenko’s
expressive watercolour illustrations convey contextual information about
the characters’ communities and lifestyles. He creates humour through
the facial expressions and body language of the humans, animals, birds,
and other creatures. Readers are encouraged to carefully view the
illustrations, as many have comical details. Recommended.