Fascinated with the sock monkey since childhood Bonnie Kraus Connelly, a 30 year professional graphic artist, illustrator and business owner, has spent the last decade developing a catalog of childrens stories, illustrations, graphics, and products built around this time-worn folk art toy. Motivated to find artists with like interest and to discover all the sock monkey products available for a dream store/art gallery she wants to build, the idea for book Everythings Coming Up Sock Monkeys was born.Everythings Coming Up Sock Monkeys is a new publication from the art studio of In My Own Dream Publishing. It is a coffee table art book cataloging the Art, History and Business of the American Sock Monkey, Volume 1. As a true celebration of creativity, it features over 80 contributors artists, photographers, collectors, museum and gallery exhibits, vintage and non-typical monkey makers, published books, comics, craft magazines, businesses and more of the humbly famed sock monkey. Enhancing the sock monkeys creative collective life, this is a Good for All book if ever there was.

In 2004, Elizabeth VanSickle was diagnosed with metastatic breast cancer. She was determined to overcome her affliction by helping others...one sock monkey at a time. Her caring spirit has enabled her to develop a unique ministry, Sock Monkey Ministries, Inc. that helps others in need by giving them a hand made sock monkey. This ministry spreads an encouraging act to let others know they are not alone in their fight. To date, over 9500 sock monkeys have been made and given to those in need of encouragement.

This volume is based on the recognition that heritage is popular and popular culture is now readily transformed into heritage whose meanings and myths reshape social life and political and economic realities as well as re-make “tradition.” The papers in this volume consider: What does popular heritage look like? To whom does it speak? Is it active in dissolving class and cultural boundaries or just in reproducing new ones? How do societies manage a heritage that is fluid, immediate and that straddles extremes of serious conflict and hedonistic frivolity? When/under what circumstances is the creation and expression of new cultural forms – popular culture – capable of being transformed into heritage?.

Rocko and Spanky, twin sock monkeys, get ready for a visit from their mother.

Take a delightful romp back through time and see the world through the eyes of your inner child. Revisit the world in the years following the end of the Second World War, to the children of this country's "Greatest Generation," when innocence, wonder, and awe were alive and well. Go back to the days of two pieces of candy for a penny, the introduction of the Hula-Hoop, and Red Ryder BB guns, the gift that every little boy dreamed of finding beneath the Christmas tree. The world of the baby boomer was a simpler place and time, a time when telephone service meant that you were a part of a "party line," a handshake was better than a signed contract. It was a time when the family sat together to eat their meals and share their dreams and accomplishments, as well as their failures. There was a sweetness to life during those decades. This book offers the reader an intimate look into the daily lives of those who lived the wonder. Recall the memories of many historical events and people. Let the child in you free to explore and reconnect with the values and people of those magical years before the birth of computers, cell phones, and television. Your vacation back in time will be one that you will always remember. Be ready to laugh and cry, but most of all, be prepared to revisit your youth and your dreams. Yesterday awaits. The sock monkey will be your guide.