Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)The premise is deceptively simple: sock monkeys aren't just sitting idly on shelves waiting for human beings to notice and interact with them. They are in fact leading rich, sometimes complex inner lives.
Reading SOCK MONKEY DREAMS is much like peering through window after window of a doll's house (in this case, a turreted red Victorian two-story dubbed the Red Heel Monkey Shelter) to witness the scenes inside actually in motion, the characters fully fleshed and engaged in matters of interest and concern to them, whether we are observing them or not.
The reader is prepared for this shift in perspective by the opening chapters, in which, respectively, sock monkeys Folio and Benny Hathaway provide the history of the origin and development of their simian kind (including a fascinating series of photos illustrating the physical evolution of the species), and explain the impetus behind Benny's decision to gather stories of the Shelter's citizens.
Benny clarifies early: "Before we go any further, I think that we should get one thing straight. The way the monkeys at the Red Heel Monkey Shelter look at life is not necessarily the way all sock monkeys look at the world around them... Not all sock monkeys are self-centered, crazy, infused with magical powers, or convinced they are royalty or ex-movie stars. Not all monkeys have their own TV shows, join rock bands, or run little secondhand shops. As far as I know. But some of the monkeys here do these things." (SMD, p. 16)
The majority of the book provides glimpses into the lives of these monkeys, through snippets of interviews and articles from The Monkey Ape Vine, as well as sidebars that explain Cool Girls slang or the rules of games like Slug Bug and Slickety Wicket.
But the clever, often funny and sometimes poignant writing is only half of the delight of SOCK MONKEY DREAMS. Numerous gorgeous, full-page photographs of sock monkeys in action, using satisfyingly detailed sets, provide the reader with a visual feast. They also provoke not a few 'how did they DO that?'s. The Minibabies garden, GAGA OSME circus scene, and Zippy's surreal birthday party are particular favorites.
The vignette style of SOCK MONKEY DREAMS makes it possible to read the book beginning at any point (dreams, after all, being non-linear). It succeeds in operating on multiple story-telling levels to appeal to a range of ages and temperaments. It is both simple and sophisticated, clever and straightforward. It is by turns sweet and sardonic, laugh provoking and insightful. The characters into whose lives we glimpse are shown clearly to be as prone to foibles and follies, to hold hopes (or delusions) as strongly, to love and disdain and provoke and ignore each other as completely as any human beings.
SOCK MONKEY DREAMS is the sort of book that will stimulate all but the dullest or most jaded imaginations, and I recommend it most highly.
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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.
Click here for more information about Sock Monkey Dreams: Daily Life at the Red Heel Monkey Shelter
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