Socks at the Sox

One fateful day three years ago, Lori Orlinsky was folding laundry and wondered aloud why she couldn’t find a matching pair of socks. Her then-4-year-old daughter Ellie confidently answered, “They went to the White Sox game!”

It soon became a family tradition to invent stories about where their rogue socks disappeared to, and what sorts of adventures they were having. But it was Ellie’s original comment that inspired Orlinsky to write The Adventures of Lefty and Righty: The Windy City , a children’s book adventure through Chicago landmarks published by Mascot Kids in March.

Lefty and Righty –illustrated by Kenn Vidro–is Orlinsky’s fourth children’s book, each one based on her family’s experiences. Her first book, Being Small (Isn’t So Bad After All) , was inspired by her oldest daughter Hayley–now 10–getting bullied for being the shortest kid in her class. Next came The Tooth Fairy’s Tummy Ache , a lesson about lying based on a girl trying to pretend she had lost a tooth by putting popcorn under her pillow; finally, Balloons for Tiger helped all three of Orlinsky’s children process the loss of their pet cat.

Since “all of my books so far have been based on things my family has gone through,” Orlinsky said, she looked forward to writing a lighthearted journey to her daughters’ favorite places in Chicago from water taxis to the Navy Pier Ferris wheel.

“I thought this would be a fun book to teach kids about Chicago using the White Sox cross-town classic game as a hook,” Orlinsky said. “Parents get a little chuckle out of it too because we’ve all been in that situation where we can’t tell where the socks went!”

In addition to her children’s stories, Orlinsky, a past 36 Under 36 honoree, is the granddaughter of Holocaust survivors who proudly shares her family’s story at speaking engagements around the Chicago area.

Orlinsky and her family highly value tikun olam , and have partnered with White Sox Charities on the new book to donate a portion of the proceeds to their youth education and literacy program. Copies of the book will also be available in the White Sox’ nursing room and sensory room during games.

For more information, visit loriorlinskyauthor.com .