Turn to the first page of The Couch in the Yard and you tumble into a small town at sunset. A rusty car sits in a bed of flowers and a family readies for an adventure, securing a spare couch to its roof.

They follow gravelly roads "up in the mountains, down through the hollow," past "the stormed-down oaks, and the old scrap heap," writes author Kate Hoefler.

"It's a story about a family's nighttime ritual of loading up an old car and taking a long drive around the rural areas where they live," says Hoefler about her new children's book, which was inspired by her own drives with her children in Ohio's Appalachia.

Illustrations copyright © 2025 by Dena Seiferling /

"As soon as you take a drive — about a minute out — I begin to feel like I'm almost in my own private world," Hoefler s

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