2025 picture book The Couch in the Yard is rare in several ways.
First, it focuses on a rural American setting. Not an idealized farm, but on the places that are between and a bit run down. Author Kate Hoefler grew up in the Appalachian region of Ohio, and it shows. The book reminds me of my aunts and uncles in southern Ohio.
Second, Hoefler’s book is in verse that not only flows, it integrates words from the region, like “joy-pie,” smoothly.
Third, Hoefler manages to tell a story that makes this region and way of living–blue collar/country, getting by, fixing things–magical without distorting it.
And fourth, Dena Seiferling’s illustrations feel perfectly integrated, like this is a single vision.
It is easy to see why this won the Margaret Wise Brown Prize in Children’s Literature in 2026.
