The Couch in the Yard
Written by Kate Hoefler and Illustrated by Dena Seiferling
★ "A rural family takes part in a nightly ritual.
As the sky darkens, the family tinkers with a rusty old car. After securing the titular couch to the car’s roof, they drive over “the gravelly roads… / up in the mountains, down by the hollow,” to a field of old abandoned vehicles. With a little love and magic, their car takes flight over the open space, where they’re bathed in the light of “a moon that is wondrous, / that will never break” and gaze at the fog, “which hugs the mountain like cozy bedsheets.” After their nightly trek is complete, they return to their humble abode filled with love. Inspired by nightly drives with her family in Appalachian Ohio, Hoefler tenderly pays tribute to an area whose inhabitants are often misunderstood or looked down upon. Using a “House That Jack Built” format, she finds beauty in things many would overlook, like “the field with the school bus surrounded by sheep.” Quotidian details mingle with the strange and surreal, with captivating results. With a shimmering, impressionistic flair, Seiferling’s digital illustrations add texture to the deep blues and blacks of the nocturnal setting. Author’s and illustrator’s notes further emphasize the importance of finding meaning in the simple and everyday. Most of the family members are tan-skinned and present East Asian; one child is darker-skinned.
A spellbinding love letter to rural America—and a reminder to look more closely at the world around us."
—Kirkus Reviews, Starred Review
"Seiferling lends an appropriately dreamy quality to the Appalachian tale through moss and sepia-toned Photoshop landscapes and indistinct portraiture. A quiet and reverential nod to the value in items loved beyond a typical life expectancy, and to the transportive power of imagination."
—Booklist
"In this dreamy picture book, a family explores all the lush, mysterious, and startling beauty that emerges at night in Appalachian regions of Ohio. The language is evocative of the region, referencing abandoned vehicles, gravel roads, foggy mountains, and wild, regional plants, but Hoefler adds a fantasy element that makes it all so much more magical. . . . Children growing up in rural areas will likely feel right at home, and city kids may well end up longing for the quiet, star-filled skies, untroubled by all the realities of growing up in the generally economically ravaged and culturally disdained Appalachian regions of the US."
—The Bulletin for the Center of Children's Books
"Dena Seiferling’s moody illustrations set the stage beautifully. . . . 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.'”
—BookPage