The Story of Oddieworld: Cub Scout Oddie

Samuel Nicholis, Mathew Tatum, and Grant Slatter
Oddies Limited (2005)
ISBN 1904745113
Reviewed by Audrey Hauser for Reader Views (9/06)

Everyone wants to know where socks go when they get lost.  As the mother of five children I had many socks that went into the washing machine and disappeared.  It had long been a mystery to me until I read the delightful story of “Cub Scout Oddie.”   Who knew there was a place called Oddieworld?   The story told just how the Cub Scout lost one of his favorite socks.  Of course the sock didn’t know he was headed for Oddieworld when the washing machine spit him out. When his bubble drifted down into Oddieworld he was thinking about how exciting it was to be a cub scout when he heard a soft voice asking for help.  It was Sock Fairy and she was worried about Wizzo who was lost in Verruca Woods.  She told Cub Scout Oddie how to get there but he didn’t know which way east was.  Poof!  Sock Fairy was gone and in her place was a shiny compass to help Cub Scout Oddie find his way to Verruca Woods.  Since he had to cross Magic Lake he used his cub-scout skills to build a raft.  He found food in Oddie Orchard, and revived setting out until he came to Ankle Palace.  Here with the help of Butler Oddie he got on a water ski behind the Royal motorboat and soon found he was on Bad Oddie Island.

His experiences with finding Wizzo trapped under the smelly Foot Plant gave him another chance to use the compass.   He knew about Foot Plants liking the shade so he used the compass to reflect the sun onto the plant’s toes causing them to warm up.  One at a time they lifted and Wizzo could free himself but alas Wizzo was too weak and Cub Scout Oddie had to push him out of the way just before the foot came crashing down.

The Sock Fairy reappeared and said her magic would send him back from whence he came or he could stay in Oddieworld.  Cub Scout Oddie wanted to stay and help the other oddies organize a camp. At the end of the evening he asked Wizzo where his spell book was.  Wizzo asked if he could borrow the compass to find the book.

Meanwhile back home the Cub Scout was still looking for the missing sock.  It was getting late so he went to bed and as he drifted off to sleep he said, “Now where do lost socks go?”

This story, “Cub Scout Oddie,” written by two nine years old Cub Scouts, is a perfect example of what boys  that age can come up with if they have some guidance.  I received a pair of Cub Scout socks with the book and, well, one of them is just a little odd.  I plan to make it into Cub Scout Oddie and use it to help tell the story.

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