The Couch in the Yard

Set in the Appalachian Mountains, this whimsical, rhyming children’s picture book is rich with luminescent illustrations. It narrates the story of a mother and her three children who wait until dusk to prepare for their magical trip to the moon. Using the resources at hand—an old car, a discarded couch in the yard, tools, hard work, and their imaginations—they make the journey possible.

Author Kate Hoefler’s lilting narrative draws readers in: “This is a house in the hills up high, / with a rusted old car in the sweet joe-pye— / where the clothesline sways on a dogwood breeze, / where the road goes to ruts and fades into trees. / This is the porch that is crooked and marred. / This is the couch that sits in the yard. / These are the folks with the tools and a heart / who work on the car and get it to start.”

Once the car is running, the couch is loaded on the car’s roof and strapped securely in place. The mother and children climb in, along with their dog, and zoom up the mountains, down through the hollows, past a dilapidated bus surrounded by grazing sheep, and by an old scrap heap. Suddenly, they are transported from earth-bound realities to a place where “cars in the yard never die—/ they nest like birds and wait to fly.” And, finally, they arrive on the moon—“a moon that is wondrous, / that never will break: / This is the shine / that nothing can take.”

In an author note, Hoefler relates how, when her children were young, they often took long rides through Ohio’s Appalachia, the place they called home. Hoefler’s children saw beauty where many adults might have seen only junk—yard cars, dilapidated yard couches, and abandoned school buses. She writes, “Currently in the children’s book market, while yard cars and couches are occasionally featured in art, they still seem to be realities that are never directly a part of a story—let alone a part of a story where they are a source of agency, joy and magic.” Now, Hoefler hopes, children who’ve never seen a yard car or yard couch can use their imaginations to travel by these means as they engage with this marvellous book.

(Neal Porter Books)