Socks by Elizabeth Lindsay and Nick Sharratt (David Fickling Books)

This jolly colourful and fun book popped itself into our library stack this week but as the old adage goes...never judge a book by its cover.

We've previously loved Pants and More Pants by Giles Andreae and Nick Sharratt to bits (and they're still both regular bed-time reads), so it seemed like Socks was going to be a dead cert for an instant 5 out of 5 but...hmm, I don't know what to say really, it's disappointing in a way that's hard to explain. Perhaps the bar has been set too high by those books and that's why Socks is a bit of a dud.

Sharratt's illustrations are as good as ever, but the book just seems to meander along making pretty awful sock-based puns before dribbling away to nothing. Charlotte is a tough critic, even tougher than me and in our weekly review schedule she's always the one who passes final judgement on a book (four years old and a tyrannical critic! Be afraid, be very afraid!) If it's her kind of thing, it will be demanded and read and re-read until I can barely stand to open the cover again. If it's not, and if it just doesn't float her boat, it gets put to the bottom of the pile and passed over in favour of the others.

Sadly, this is the case with Socks. It's very rare to see a mis-hit involving Sharratt but this is one pongy odd sock at the bottom of the wash pile alas.

Charlotte's best bit: A tiny glimmer of a smile at the sock-submarine

Daddy's favourite bit: Bright vibrant colourful illustrations that can't lift a book that has no flow or rhythm at all, sadly.

Rating: 1 out of 5 stars. Owch.