about the book: the synopsis

The Secrets of Eastcliff-by-the-Sea:The Story of Annaliese Easterling & Throckmorton, Her Simply Remarkable Sock Monkey

Once, in a fine house on a high cliff above a frozen sea, Throckmorton S. Monkey heard the frenzied barks of the family dogs announcing the approach of a stranger. So begins the story of The Secrets of Eastcliff-by-the-Sea.

Throckmorton is everything a sock monkey is supposed to be: loving, loyal, and a very good listener. And he’s never – not even once! – stopped smiling.

Yet Throckmorton has been long forgotten by his keeper, Annaliese Easterling, and he seems doomed to live out his days lost and lonely among other abandoned stuffed animals.

But then one day Great-Grandmama Easterling sends engraved invitations to forty-nine sock monkeys to attend her 90th birthday party along with their human keepers.

Throckmorton is thrilled! The arrival of his invitation brings Annaliese back to him, and Throckmorton vows to do something so remarkable, so amazing, she will never want to be separated from him again.

As she and her brothers, Evan and Teddy, search for the Easterling family’s missing sock monkeys, clues emerge about the mysterious disappearance of their mother.

By story’s end, Throckmorton will find a way to achieve the impossible. How? Simply by being himself.

Read the story behind the story.

View the story in Sarah Jane Wright's illustrations.

Download the Educators' Guide.

Awards and Honors
Bank Street College of Education Best Children's Books of the Year, 2015
Kirkus Reviews, starred review
Minnesota's Maud Hart Lovelace nomination, 2017
New York Public Library Children's Best Books, 2014