Review by Booklist Review
Charged with fetching his baby sister's sock from the laundry, Milo is forced into a showdown with the foreboding basement of his new house. Thanks to a slippery sock rat, though, he's drawn downward, and as room after impossible room becomes castle, cavern, and underground lake, this ever-deepening mystery shifts into an epic, mythic adventure as he travels on. On this grand premise, Hatke hangs a tale of remarkable visual bounty. Indeed, there are few out there producing works that give you more to look at, or perhaps more to take from what you see. The story is well aware of this: one of Milo's stalwarts on this trip actually speaks in pictures, and the other is literally an eyeball. The creatures are merely the tip of the visual iceberg, though; the precision of movement and action keeps even the extended silent passages riveting, and the extraordinary control of shadow and color gives each location its own unique tone, saturated with a sense of emotion and eerie history. Generous in structure, as well, just when the tale could come to a satisfying conclusion, it opens wider, its most heart-pounding moments still ahead. Hatke creates a catchy internal mythology for this subterranean world, too, and offers heroic examples of perseverance, commitment, friendship, and teamwork.
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Tasked with retrieving his baby sister's special sock from the basement laundry room, young Milo, portrayed with brown skin, is startled when a large rat-like creature steals it. After a brief retreat, Milo shores up the courage to pursue the sock-napper. Uncovering a key from behind a fake brick, which unlocks a hidden floor hatch that leads to an increasingly vast series of secret chambers beneath the house, Milo descends into an ornately decorated room where he encounters a levitating skull. As he follows the twisting corridors, he eventually emerges in a subterranean world inhabited by various unusual magical creatures--including a giant eyeball with tentacles and guitar-strumming toadstools--whose help he will need to find the sock and return home. Hatke (the Mighty Jack series) gently blends both whimsical and terrifying imagery to create a fantastical, dreamily atmospheric katabasis, rich with details that draw inspiration from puzzle-filled, dungeon-delving games such as the Legend of Zelda series. Wandering panel gutters border carefully paced sequences that lead through wondrous reveals while palette shifts between cool blues, grays, greens, and purples evoke moody ambiance. Milo's bravery, ingenuity, and earnest offers of friendship are handsomely rewarded in this eerie and tender graphic novel. Ages 6--9. (Aug.)
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Review by School Library Journal Review
Gr 3--5--The search for a sock opens doors to new worlds, both fantastic and eerie, in Hatke's newest graphic novel. Milo, shown as a brown-skinned young boy, has to retrieve one of his twin siblings' socks from the basement laundry room, but a rat snatches it before Milo can grab it. Milo finds the courage to pursue the rat and discovers secret chambers that lead to a fantastic world inhabited by such denizens as a floating skull, a sensitive one-eyed tentacled creature, an army of mushrooms, and a ghost--all of whom he will need in order to locate the sock and get back home. Hatke is at his best in this book that blends fantasy with reality, deftly harmonizing murky greens and browns with cool blues and purples to create an eerie and wonderful atmosphere. His command of light is breathtaking, with a small torch borne by Milo providing warmth and denoting safety as he delves deeper into the subterranean landscape. Leaving his tale sparsely worded, Hatke uses illustration to weave a story of friendship and bravery. VERDICT A recommended first purchase for graphic novel collections.--Rosemary Kiladitis
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Review by Kirkus Book Review
A boy's search for a sock leads him below and beyond the world he knows. Milo feels adrift--twin babies take up his mother's attention, and their new home is full of moving boxes and devoid of fun. When Milo's mom asks him to locate one of the babies' socks in the cavernous basement, he reluctantly agrees. He heads down into a classically creepy old-house basement and spies a rat absconding with the bright pink sock. Milo gives chase through multiple curiously adorned subbasements, careens down a dark tunnel in a mine cart, and finally falls into a boundless underworld full of artifacts of bygone civilizations--and a gargantuan mountain of socks. As he descends, Milo befriends a chattering skull, a giant eyeball, a ghost girl seeking her stocking, and a nun with a bell for a face. Together, they face the sock rats and a translucent monster who threatens to thwart them. Hatke's artistic vision is central to the story, with constantly flowing, kinetic linework that sweeps readers along, riptidelike, ever deeper into the story. The shadowy underworld feels imposing without descending into horror; it helps that the big bad guy is a green ball of goo. With a light touch to the dialogue, this work explores themes of loss, grief, and displacement in moving ways. Milo and his family are cued Latine. A journey of loss both intimate and fantastical, swept along by flowing, emotive illustrations. (Graphic fantasy. 7-12) Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
