MY SOCK MONSTER

A cuddly antihero charms and devours in a simple story of theft and footwear.

In the home of the young girl narrating the story, the Sock Monster is very real, a little white puff with a pink belly, a cotton-ball tail and a hungry human mouth. Sock Monster chomps socks in drawers, eats them right off the clothesline and gets into the washing machine to enjoy them fresh and wet. When she runs out, the young girl must resort to grand theft stocking, taking unmatched ones from friends and loved ones. The app exposing the little monster is short at 10 pages and simple in design with few frills. Text is unadorned (“He GOBBLED socks from the washing line”). Illustrations are a mix of photos, computer-generated art and some simple animation that looks great but doesn’t really stand out. Luckily, Sock Monster himself is a riot, a little fur ball of anarchy who takes satisfying bites out of every sock situation. And he’s not without taste. He won’t descend to eating underwear and gets sick if the socks are smelly, leading to a sound-effect–filled page that will tickle young fans of flatulence humor.

It’s a good lesson for other app developers: A winning main character can turn an otherwise unremarkable app into an itty-bitty joy, even a little sock-stealing stinker like the Sock Monster.