Things in the Basement by Ben Hatke

Things in the Basement by Ben Hatke, colors by Zack Giallongo. First Second, 2023. 9781250909541
Rating: 1-5 (5 is an excellent or a Starred review) 5
Format: Paperback graphic novel
Genre: Fantasy
What did you like about the book?   Milo has just moved into a new house with his mother and infant twins. Right away he spots mysterious movements. His mother asks him to please go into the basement to find one of Lucy’s missing pink socks. This is pretty darn frightening for Milo who gets tangled up in laundry.  He finds a key wrapped in a long scarf and behind the furnace is a door that opens into another room and there he sees Lucy’s pink sock! As he goes to grab it, it is carried off by some strange creature and the entrance to yet another area of the basement.  He is determined to get the sock back even if it means traveling all over the immense basement with cathedral-like rooms, dungeons and halls filled with portraits, enlisting the help of a friendly skull, a ghost and a huge sad eyeball with tentacles. They encounter a huge green monster that wants to eat everything it sees. There is little dialog, almost limited to screams and exclamations, done in speech bubbles.
Illustrations are appropriately dark in shades of purple, an eerie green and browns. The illustrations are drawn with ebony pencils heightened with a wash of ivory black watercolor and Bristol board and colored digitally.  Milo is brown-skinned with a shock of black hair.
Anything you did not like about the book?  No.
To whom would you recommend this book?  Those who enjoyed Hatke’s Zita the Spacegirl and the Mighty Jack series will love the mystery and intrigue of this one matched with Hatke’s exquisite illustrations. Also the three books starring Julia and her creatures.
Who should buy this book? Public and elementary school libraries and Ben Hatke devotees
Where would you shelve it? graphic novels
Should we (librarians) put this on the top of our “to read” piles? If you really love Ben Hatke and fabulous spooky, graphic novels, then yes!
Reviewer’s Name, Library (or school), City: Katrina Yurenka, Retired Librarian, Contributor, Youth Services Book Review
Date of Review:  August 19, 2023