Through the Looking Glass Children's Book Reviews

Pinch and Dash and the Terrible Couch

Pinch and Dash and the Terrible Couch

Michael J. Daley
Illustrator:  Thomas F. Yezerski 
Fiction  Series
For ages 6 to 8
Charlesbridge Publishing, 2013   ISBN: 978-1580893800

One day Pinch is sitting in his cozy chair reading a wonderful cookbook when someone rings his doorbell. Pinch ignores the noise. He does not feel like getting out of his cozy chair and the cookbook he is looking at is “very good.”

   Eventually the ringing is just too hard to ignore and a grumpy Pinch goes to answer the door. Outside there is a huge sofa, which two moving guys, Push and Shove, proceed to carry into Pinch’s little house. His cozy chair gets shoved to one side, as does his desk. Before Push and Shove leave, they give Pinch a note from his aunt. Apparently she has moved to a very small apartment and has no room for her couch. She wants Pinch to take care of it until she moves to a bigger house.

   Soon Dash arrives and he appreciates that poor Pinch is in a bit of a pickle. Being a good friend he offers to help Pinch rearrange things. Maybe there is a way to make the sofa fit nicely in Pinch’s house. Or maybe not.

   In this amusing Pinch and Dash book, poor Pinch finds himself in a very uncomfortable situation and he cannot find a solution. Even his best friend Dash is flummoxed by the enormous sofa. Young readers are going to laugh out loud when then see what Pinch ends up doing with his upholstered problem.