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Simon Sock
A wonderful new character from the bestselling creators of Barry the Fish with Fingers and the illustrator of Goodnight Digger.
Simon is an odd, stripey sock. He lives in the drawers with all the other socks. Every day two socks get picked to go on an adventure. The sparklies go to parties. The woolies go the park. The smarts go to school. Everyone has a pair... except Simon. Will he ever find his perfect match?
A hilarious story celebrating friendship and difference from an exciting new picture book partnership.
Sue Hendra and Paul Linnet's hilarious books have sold over 1 million copies!
Simon is an odd, stripey sock. He lives in the drawers with all the other socks. Every day two socks get picked to go on an adventure. The sparklies go to parties. The woolies go the park. The smarts go to school. Everyone has a pair... except Simon. Will he ever find his perfect match?
A hilarious story celebrating friendship and difference from an exciting new picture book partnership.
Sue Hendra and Paul Linnet's hilarious books have sold over 1 million copies!
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First published October 5, 2017
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Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews
July 20, 2025
This was a cute book and beautifully presented – just that the ending would have been better if the idea was changed for Simon Sock to probably get another kind of friend or partner for life rather than what was ultimately shown in the book. That took away the whole appeal of the book for me and then the story fell flat on its face!
But, otherwise, it was a terrific book, illustrated with some beautiful scenes and I’m sure any child would go for it if it was displayed in a PYP IB or IGCSE Library.
‘Simon Sock’ was penned by the writing duo Sue Hendra and Paul Linnet, and it was illustrated by Nick East. I give full marks to Nick East, but Hendra and Linnet should have thought about that ending a bit more pragmatically. They had a really great thing going with Simon Sock seeking his potential BFF, and Nick East had done a wonderful job with the sketches and colouring, not to mention that cute spider, the naughty pant taking a liking to one female sock in the drawer, the intimidating undergarment with the swag, and the fact that gender inclusivity was part of the drawings as well. But, as I said, they blew it at the end. It was like an anti-climax that instead of going into my oesophagus went into my trachea and then got ousted out of my system forcefully to give me a new lease on life – but in the bargain took the whole otherwise enjoyable experience of the book with it!
But they really had a great thing going.
I would have really suggested that in the end Simon Sock could have got another totally different sock as a BFF. It is common to see kids and other Gen-Alpha and Gen-Z (especially!) individuals sporting different pairs of really crazy but woolly ‘cat in the hat’ kind of socks these days, so then that would have been digestible ultimately as an apt ending to a tale that was going in the direction of acceptance of differences in friendships. But the ‘thing’ that was ultimately chosen as a BFF by Simon Sock really felt so oddly placed that I really had a hard time coming to grips with this particular Hodder Children’s Book.
Needless to say, I had great expectations from it.
Anything that is a bright happy yellow color always has my thumbs up on first sighting and this book was that yummy lemonade yellow colour that I adore so much! I call it my Roald Dahl colour, and I adore it. It has replaced blood red as my childhood favourite colour.
Otherwise, it is a great PYP or Primary Years Programme book for the IGCSE or IB Curriculum. It handles the topic of sequencing in a rudimentary but nevertheless good enough way. It can allow the PYP student or kid to really sit back in a library bean bag (better be a yellow one!) and regale over the many surprises and fascinating ‘stories’ going on in the many backgrounds of Nick East’s gorgeous and delicious illustrations.
One thing I must add here is that on reading the book about Simon Sock who was well … just a sock, I also realized that in an intricate and mesmerizing manner the par excellence illustrator Nick East was caricaturing another crucial character in the book. This was the PYP or Junior School lad who owned Simon Sock and lived in the house and bedroom shown in the book. This kid was really an interesting specimen of creation for me and totally someone I would have loved to have known myself when I was a kid back in the 1990s.
He has, among other things, a cute female Milk Snake as a pet, in a cute little airy bowl with sand; he likes to play only one games sport and that is tennis, which proves that he is highly introverted and a loner; his other ‘loner sporty’ activity is running track big time so he basically likes to work alone; he has a few more interesting pets like a hyperactive tabby cat that should have been born a Corgi and a freshwater angelfish that he keeps alone in a really funky looking fish tank; he also plays the xylophone, loves to surround himself with plants, loves cacti, because it reminds him of the old wild west in Texas, loves to read non-fiction books as well as books containing short stories (which is a rarity with people and kids only wanting novels or no books at all these days!); likes to party and when I mean party that means party hard with a lot of dancing; he likes skating to roller blading big time (me too!), likes to jump in an inflatable bounce house non-stop (me too! But too plus size now!), owns a designer pair of pink converse shoes (pink -nice!), has a HUGE sock collection (but only a few pairs of shoes – eh?!), loves to play with a hula hoop in a garden; watches TV a lot with his granddad and usually about cowboys and the old wild west; tends to feel cold very easily during the winter so has a lot of woollens (trying to understand that but till date I’ve never experienced a real snowy winter here in Mumbai; in fact I’ve not experienced winter in the past 12 years at all, snowy or non-snowy … summer 24/7 and 365 days of the year in Mumbai … global warming blues! It is like R.K. Narayan said: in India six months in the year are hot and the other remaining six are hotter!); likes playing around with a toy car (just that one!); has a fondness for only one childhood teddy bear, and drinks one of my favourite childhood kiddie drinks – a Leprechaun Lemonade which is a mix of Hawaiian Punch, a lot of 7UP, a lot of lime sherbet and a bit of pineapple juice. Don’t ask me the quantities of the ingredients, I’ve never cooked in my life, and I was poor at math especially in the spatial realm. In fact, I’ve never stepped the kitchen - don’t even know what it looks like really – not even to make my coffee – no my coffee still comes walking to me in the hall or bedroom still, for now!
It is definitely a kiddie drink perfect for St. Patricks Day, and one kid used to get it from home for us back at Bombay Scottish School, Mahim in the 1990s. She said her mom was an airhostess and used to bring the Hawaiian Punch drink from the USA for her back then. The mom liked it back in the 1970s when she was a kid herself, seemed to be all over the place in the 1970s and 1980s, and then it became an adult drink or something (magic! Overnight!) so we all invariably gave it up when we found out (we were too goody-goody!). The airhostess mother would only get the Hawaiian Punch from abroad and then prepared the rest of the Leprechaun Lemonade back here in Mumbai and then got it down for us back at school who were friends with her really cool daughter. I realized this male kid in the book was drinking this particular old-fashioned drink because of the slimy but slurpy and juicy nature of it, reminiscent of my 1990s childhood days. Slurp-worthy!
So that kid was basically really something else and if I was still a kid I would have loved to have known him. He was certainly an outstanding feature inadvertently painted by Nick East in the book, and I’m going to highlight this on my website PGCITE portfolio for International Teacher Training at fizapathansteachingportfolioforpgcite.com when I’m analysing the book there.
So, everything was going well for this book – but that ending! Sigh!
‘Simon Sock’ therefore gets 3 stars from me.
But, otherwise, it was a terrific book, illustrated with some beautiful scenes and I’m sure any child would go for it if it was displayed in a PYP IB or IGCSE Library.
‘Simon Sock’ was penned by the writing duo Sue Hendra and Paul Linnet, and it was illustrated by Nick East. I give full marks to Nick East, but Hendra and Linnet should have thought about that ending a bit more pragmatically. They had a really great thing going with Simon Sock seeking his potential BFF, and Nick East had done a wonderful job with the sketches and colouring, not to mention that cute spider, the naughty pant taking a liking to one female sock in the drawer, the intimidating undergarment with the swag, and the fact that gender inclusivity was part of the drawings as well. But, as I said, they blew it at the end. It was like an anti-climax that instead of going into my oesophagus went into my trachea and then got ousted out of my system forcefully to give me a new lease on life – but in the bargain took the whole otherwise enjoyable experience of the book with it!
But they really had a great thing going.
I would have really suggested that in the end Simon Sock could have got another totally different sock as a BFF. It is common to see kids and other Gen-Alpha and Gen-Z (especially!) individuals sporting different pairs of really crazy but woolly ‘cat in the hat’ kind of socks these days, so then that would have been digestible ultimately as an apt ending to a tale that was going in the direction of acceptance of differences in friendships. But the ‘thing’ that was ultimately chosen as a BFF by Simon Sock really felt so oddly placed that I really had a hard time coming to grips with this particular Hodder Children’s Book.
Needless to say, I had great expectations from it.
Anything that is a bright happy yellow color always has my thumbs up on first sighting and this book was that yummy lemonade yellow colour that I adore so much! I call it my Roald Dahl colour, and I adore it. It has replaced blood red as my childhood favourite colour.
Otherwise, it is a great PYP or Primary Years Programme book for the IGCSE or IB Curriculum. It handles the topic of sequencing in a rudimentary but nevertheless good enough way. It can allow the PYP student or kid to really sit back in a library bean bag (better be a yellow one!) and regale over the many surprises and fascinating ‘stories’ going on in the many backgrounds of Nick East’s gorgeous and delicious illustrations.
One thing I must add here is that on reading the book about Simon Sock who was well … just a sock, I also realized that in an intricate and mesmerizing manner the par excellence illustrator Nick East was caricaturing another crucial character in the book. This was the PYP or Junior School lad who owned Simon Sock and lived in the house and bedroom shown in the book. This kid was really an interesting specimen of creation for me and totally someone I would have loved to have known myself when I was a kid back in the 1990s.
He has, among other things, a cute female Milk Snake as a pet, in a cute little airy bowl with sand; he likes to play only one games sport and that is tennis, which proves that he is highly introverted and a loner; his other ‘loner sporty’ activity is running track big time so he basically likes to work alone; he has a few more interesting pets like a hyperactive tabby cat that should have been born a Corgi and a freshwater angelfish that he keeps alone in a really funky looking fish tank; he also plays the xylophone, loves to surround himself with plants, loves cacti, because it reminds him of the old wild west in Texas, loves to read non-fiction books as well as books containing short stories (which is a rarity with people and kids only wanting novels or no books at all these days!); likes to party and when I mean party that means party hard with a lot of dancing; he likes skating to roller blading big time (me too!), likes to jump in an inflatable bounce house non-stop (me too! But too plus size now!), owns a designer pair of pink converse shoes (pink -nice!), has a HUGE sock collection (but only a few pairs of shoes – eh?!), loves to play with a hula hoop in a garden; watches TV a lot with his granddad and usually about cowboys and the old wild west; tends to feel cold very easily during the winter so has a lot of woollens (trying to understand that but till date I’ve never experienced a real snowy winter here in Mumbai; in fact I’ve not experienced winter in the past 12 years at all, snowy or non-snowy … summer 24/7 and 365 days of the year in Mumbai … global warming blues! It is like R.K. Narayan said: in India six months in the year are hot and the other remaining six are hotter!); likes playing around with a toy car (just that one!); has a fondness for only one childhood teddy bear, and drinks one of my favourite childhood kiddie drinks – a Leprechaun Lemonade which is a mix of Hawaiian Punch, a lot of 7UP, a lot of lime sherbet and a bit of pineapple juice. Don’t ask me the quantities of the ingredients, I’ve never cooked in my life, and I was poor at math especially in the spatial realm. In fact, I’ve never stepped the kitchen - don’t even know what it looks like really – not even to make my coffee – no my coffee still comes walking to me in the hall or bedroom still, for now!
It is definitely a kiddie drink perfect for St. Patricks Day, and one kid used to get it from home for us back at Bombay Scottish School, Mahim in the 1990s. She said her mom was an airhostess and used to bring the Hawaiian Punch drink from the USA for her back then. The mom liked it back in the 1970s when she was a kid herself, seemed to be all over the place in the 1970s and 1980s, and then it became an adult drink or something (magic! Overnight!) so we all invariably gave it up when we found out (we were too goody-goody!). The airhostess mother would only get the Hawaiian Punch from abroad and then prepared the rest of the Leprechaun Lemonade back here in Mumbai and then got it down for us back at school who were friends with her really cool daughter. I realized this male kid in the book was drinking this particular old-fashioned drink because of the slimy but slurpy and juicy nature of it, reminiscent of my 1990s childhood days. Slurp-worthy!
So that kid was basically really something else and if I was still a kid I would have loved to have known him. He was certainly an outstanding feature inadvertently painted by Nick East in the book, and I’m going to highlight this on my website PGCITE portfolio for International Teacher Training at fizapathansteachingportfolioforpgcite.com when I’m analysing the book there.
So, everything was going well for this book – but that ending! Sigh!
‘Simon Sock’ therefore gets 3 stars from me.
February 20, 2024
قصه تقریباً معمولی پیش میرفت. اونقدرها بامزه نبود اما موقعیتهای جالبی داشت که میتونه برای مخاطب جذاب باشه. طوری پیش میرفت که تا اواخر کتاب انتظار یک پایان بد رو داشتم که یکهو ورق برگشت و پایان متوسطی رقم خورد
اماااااا
بهنظرم مسالهی داستانی از وسط داستان خیلی نرم تغییر میکنه. شروع داستان اینطوره که یکی باید جورابها رو برداره، بپوشه تا باهاش برن ماجراجویی. اما از وسط به بعد بهنظر میرسه که جورابها خودشون میتونن برن ماجراجویی و لَنگ کسی و پوشیدهشدن نیستن. که خب اگه اینطوره چرا باید حتماً جفت باشن؟ سیمون در ابتدا دنبال جفت بود تا پوشیده شه. و در پایان مسالهی پوشیدهشدن حل نشد که نشد.
اماااااا
بهنظرم مسالهی داستانی از وسط داستان خیلی نرم تغییر میکنه. شروع داستان اینطوره که یکی باید جورابها رو برداره، بپوشه تا باهاش برن ماجراجویی. اما از وسط به بعد بهنظر میرسه که جورابها خودشون میتونن برن ماجراجویی و لَنگ کسی و پوشیدهشدن نیستن. که خب اگه اینطوره چرا باید حتماً جفت باشن؟ سیمون در ابتدا دنبال جفت بود تا پوشیده شه. و در پایان مسالهی پوشیدهشدن حل نشد که نشد.
April 25, 2020
As an odd sock, Simon Sock is left out of the paired sock activities, he cannot race like the sports socks or go to parties like the sparkly socks. Simon would love have another sock to go on adventures with. Simon wonders if he will ever find his perfect match and his friend Ted tries to help him find some sort of match in the form of a stripy snake. Even when he finally does find Simone, his matching sock, he soon realises they have completely different interests. Ultimately, almost on the verge of giving up, Simon Sock meets Betty the Banana, who instantly clicks with. The books concludes that “even though they didn’t match, they really did make a great pair.”
‘Simon Sock’ can be used to explore children’s friendships and lead children to consider what they look for in a friend as well as consider where and with who they find a sense of belonging. It promotes difference as a positive thing to be celebrated. However, the notion of matching could also be questioned, and talk around the book could discuss the fact that people may be part of many different pairs (having multiple best friends) or enjoy their own company, too. Overall, ‘Simon Sock’ has a positive message but can also be looked at from different perspectives to think of different circumstances in which we want to be part of a pair, group or by ourselves.
Sue Hendra and Paul Linnet’s picture book would be a good class read for EYFS and Key Stage 1, and could be a nice addition to circle time or PSHE.
‘Simon Sock’ can be used to explore children’s friendships and lead children to consider what they look for in a friend as well as consider where and with who they find a sense of belonging. It promotes difference as a positive thing to be celebrated. However, the notion of matching could also be questioned, and talk around the book could discuss the fact that people may be part of many different pairs (having multiple best friends) or enjoy their own company, too. Overall, ‘Simon Sock’ has a positive message but can also be looked at from different perspectives to think of different circumstances in which we want to be part of a pair, group or by ourselves.
Sue Hendra and Paul Linnet’s picture book would be a good class read for EYFS and Key Stage 1, and could be a nice addition to circle time or PSHE.
July 24, 2019
I like the message of this book- you don’t have to match to make a great pair. This is a good story and it has some funny parts in it but it’s not quite as good as Supertato.
November 11, 2022
I enjoyed reading Simon sock. It follows the emotional journey of the odd sock Simon. It would be a good book to read to EYFS/KS1 as it is a funny story that can be relatable for children as they have probably also experienced having an odd sock. It could be read as a stand alone story or with the intent to take some of the ideas further. For example it would be a good starting point to use to get children thinking about friendships.
The illustrations are well thought out. It is a very colourful book which I think makes it engaging for children. There is a reoccurring black spider throughout the book which is a nice addition.
This book was one I selected from the library. I hadn't read it before or read anything by the same author. It was a good pick and I would definitely consider using it on placement.
The illustrations are well thought out. It is a very colourful book which I think makes it engaging for children. There is a reoccurring black spider throughout the book which is a nice addition.
This book was one I selected from the library. I hadn't read it before or read anything by the same author. It was a good pick and I would definitely consider using it on placement.
August 12, 2023
همه جورابها جفتن، جورابهای مهمونی میرن مهمونی، جورابهای ورزشی میرن ورزش اما سیمون یه لنگه جوراب تنهاست به دنبال جفتش....
جالب اینکه در آخر به جای لنگه دیگهی خودش، با یک موز حسابی جفت میشه.
برای آموزش مفهوم دوست پیدا کردن به کودکان مخصوصا پیدا کردن دوستهایی که لزوما صد درصد شبیه ما نیستن خیلی خوبه.
جالب اینکه در آخر به جای لنگه دیگهی خودش، با یک موز حسابی جفت میشه.
برای آموزش مفهوم دوست پیدا کردن به کودکان مخصوصا پیدا کردن دوستهایی که لزوما صد درصد شبیه ما نیستن خیلی خوبه.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
October 16, 2019
Read this throughout nursery but would be useful also for the younger children in the classroom. Has an important message to be portrayed to children that not everyone is the same; you don’t always have to be the same it’s okay to be different
Children lived this book- was very engaging
Children lived this book- was very engaging
Read
June 4, 2020Having constantly struggled with loosing socks, I found this story very entertaining! I read it with my young cousin, who also found the story very funny. We were very glad that there was a happy ending. We now refer to our lost socks as 'Simon' and 'Simone'!
January 30, 2020
My son loves this book very much.
October 22, 2020
Undoubtedly this book has a good positive message that could lead to many important discussions with children. But the reason I gave it five stars is it’s funny especially Trevor who made me LOL.
January 30, 2021
Good book for using with EYFS Maths and learning about pairs.
March 27, 2021
I read this in class, we liked it very much
December 10, 2021
Used with PK, TK, and K for sock/stocking lesson. Focus on s blends and action words
October 20, 2022
I like that there's a spider on every page.
It's good that Betty the banana plays with Simon. Mr twinkle toes is funny and my favourite socks are the sparklies and the spotties.
It's good that Betty the banana plays with Simon. Mr twinkle toes is funny and my favourite socks are the sparklies and the spotties.
October 17, 2023
I enjoyed this book
December 20, 2023
Great illustrations, clever writing and a great moral. It packed more between its covers than most of the adult books written today. What a good child’s book should look like.
Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews