In The Couch in the Yard, Kate Hoefler uses gentle, rhyming verse to introduce an Appalachian family that takes a magical journey each night, when they load the old couch that sits in their yard onto the roof of their rusty station wagon and set out for a drive. It’s a soothing, inspiring tale for preschoolers and young elementary students, offering a glimpse of mountain life as well as an appreciation for overlooked beauty in things often discarded.
Dena Seiferling’s moody illustrations set the stage beautifully, showing the family’s cabin-like home high in the hills, with their beloved dog, couch and car in a front yard full of long grasses and wildflowers. A grandmother sits on the front porch while chickens roam, and a baby plays near tools and car parts. Meanwhile, a mother tinkers with the clunker of a car, getting it running. As dusk settles in, with “the sky pink as a petal,” the mom and her three kids pile into the car and drive off, passing a school bus sitting in a neighbor’s yard as a whistling train rumbles across the hollow. Suddenly, however, a tire pops, seemingly bringing this adventure to an end.
These scenes unfold like a movie, showcasing the beauty of a landscape dotted with aged, beloved objects. Darkness has fallen, and Seiferling depicts glorious, pitch-black sequences lit only by stars and the car’s headlights. Like an Appalachian Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, the car rises into the sky, flying with the couch on its roof, transporting this family to—where else—the moon! In an ethereal spread, the travelers sit on their couch, with front-row seats to “a moon that is wondrous, that never will break: This is the shine that nothing can take.”
The Couch in the Yard takes readers on an unforgettable adventure that focuses on the wonder and transportive beauty that surrounds us, and the joys to be found in old, treasured things.
