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Sock Monkey Dreams: Daily Life at the Red Heel Monkey Shelter
In celebration of an enduring American craft icon, Sock Monkey Dreams dares to ask the question “What are sock monkeys up to when humans aren’t looking?” With voices alternately funny, sweet, clever, crabby, and more than a little tongue in cheek, the residents of the Red Heel Monkey Shelter, a refuge for abandoned sock monkeys, reveal a world that looks surprisingly like our own. Sock newsmonkey Benny Hathaway and socktographer Link faithfully record the life and times of their fellow Red Heel residents. Each character, whether a celebrity, artist, doctor, or handymonkey, comes alive through interviews, stories, and full-color photos. Full-page dioramas provide the most detailed and fascinating window into the secret life of sock monkeys that perhaps has ever been published.
96 pages, Hardcover
First published September 21, 2006
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
October 6, 2009
I've only read the introduction and it's so witty and silly. I had a sock monkey as a best friend for the first several years of my life.
January 15, 2008
Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious!
Read
July 28, 2010Lord. What did I learn from this book? Everything . . .
March 6, 2017
This book needs way more love!
The pictures alone would be worth the price of admission, being very detailed, well-composed, whimsical dioramas, but its the stories behind them that really make this special, from a sock monkey preacher giving a sermon about the Great Grandma, a fallen child star monkey who can't seem to tell reality and film apart, to a mortified monkey kid whose mother has recently taken up the position of "Soostiboot" at his school.
The lore behind these images is dense with creativity; details like what a sock monkey's made from and its appearance both having effects on its personality, and how this book was written by the only literate monkey in the world, and how they all have no sense of time whatsoever, using the word "munce" (not to be confused with "months") as a catch-all term for any span of time that feels long, all add to the book's charm.
This is a society with its own celebrities (with scandals, of course), its own religion, social cliques, and even its own addiction problems (the character on the cover is addicted to lying in freshly dried clothing, to the point where it's his sole joy in life). These monkeys aren't gathering dust, they're gathering experience.
The more you read and reread it, the more obvious it is just how much love went into this. If you grew up loving these little stuffed goobers, or just want something goofy with a lot of heart in it to put on your coffee table, this is it.
The pictures alone would be worth the price of admission, being very detailed, well-composed, whimsical dioramas, but its the stories behind them that really make this special, from a sock monkey preacher giving a sermon about the Great Grandma, a fallen child star monkey who can't seem to tell reality and film apart, to a mortified monkey kid whose mother has recently taken up the position of "Soostiboot" at his school.
The lore behind these images is dense with creativity; details like what a sock monkey's made from and its appearance both having effects on its personality, and how this book was written by the only literate monkey in the world, and how they all have no sense of time whatsoever, using the word "munce" (not to be confused with "months") as a catch-all term for any span of time that feels long, all add to the book's charm.
This is a society with its own celebrities (with scandals, of course), its own religion, social cliques, and even its own addiction problems (the character on the cover is addicted to lying in freshly dried clothing, to the point where it's his sole joy in life). These monkeys aren't gathering dust, they're gathering experience.
The more you read and reread it, the more obvious it is just how much love went into this. If you grew up loving these little stuffed goobers, or just want something goofy with a lot of heart in it to put on your coffee table, this is it.
June 5, 2016
I purchased this book because I love sock monkeys. I actually don't own one but I do think they are adorable and whimsical. The book is written from the perspective of one of the sock monkeys that lives in a community, or collection of sock monkeys. Overall I enjoyed the book. The first 25 pages is the history of how the sock monkeys came together, how the author wanted to write the book, etc. It was cute but a bit long winded and a bit boring. The next 75 pages were a collection of stories, each story had a photograph that accompanied it. I loved this section. The stories were interesting but the photos were imaginative, adorable and funny. The photos made the book for me.
April 20, 2014
What an incredibly absurd and wonderful book.
I couldn't help but imagine the person who put this together, laughing as they set up each scene to photograph.
Probably my favorite book to leave out on the coffee table. Forget art books or architectural digests.
Set out this set of illustrated micro-stories about sock monkeys and watch the expression of anyone who picks it up.
Never fails to start a fun conversation.
I couldn't help but imagine the person who put this together, laughing as they set up each scene to photograph.
Probably my favorite book to leave out on the coffee table. Forget art books or architectural digests.
Set out this set of illustrated micro-stories about sock monkeys and watch the expression of anyone who picks it up.
Never fails to start a fun conversation.
January 2, 2015
Awesome and lovely and wonderful and hilarious. I have always loved sock monkeys, and I think Sock Monkey Dreams is what I've always wanted but never knew about.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews