THINGS IN THE BASEMENT

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.