Behind the Couch

by Mordicai Gerstein

Hoping to retrieve a beloved toy pig, Wallace, from behind the couch, young Zachary crawls further and further and finds himself in a wonderful fantasy world of lost items where Zachary is the president of the stuffed animals.

Hardcover

First published January 1, 1996

About the author

Mordicai Gerstein was an American artist, writer, and film director, best known for illustrating and writing children's books. He illustrated the comic mystery fiction series Something Queer is Going On.

Reviews

[Tommy V · Rating 2 out of 5]

Mordicai Gerstein's Behind the Couch tells the adventure of Zachary, who crawls behind his family's sofa when his toy, a stuffed purple pig named Wallace, falls in the crack between the furniture and the wall. Zachary is surprised to find that the space behind the sofa goes on much further than he had thought. Suddenly, he finds himself in another world, a forest of floor lamps and furniture legs all atop a carpeted earth.

As Zachary begins his search, he encounters his Uncle Yankle from Baltimore, who happens to be searching for his glasses and a set of keys that fell behind his couch. When Zachary appears puzzled to see his uncle so far from home, Uncle Yankle explains to him that the place where they are at can be accessed behind any couch.

And what is this place? It is an area where all of those things that you lose behind the couch end up. In addition to glasses, keys, and stuffed animals, Zachary crosses paths with a sea of paper clips, an army of pencils, a storm of popcorn balls, and a herd of slippers, one of which is being pursued by Ralphine, the prettiest girl in Zachary's third grade class.

Zachary helps Ralphine track down her slipper, and in return she agrees to accompany him to find Wallace, Uncle Yankle having returned home. Along the way, they converse with a cat, hike up Lost Coin Hill, and finally enter the Valley of the Stuffed Animals, where Ralphine discovers a long lost stuffed animal of her own, a duck named Becky.

Perhaps because it is only 56 pages long, Behind the Couch moves briskly. My son and I had no problem letting our imaginations run free in the land behind the couch, picturing talking cats and stuffed animals. But the story jumps a bit in Wallace's development. By the time Zachary finds his stuffed pig, he learns that not only is Wallace engaged to Becky the duck but he is the newly-elected President of the stuffed animals. Since I don't have a third-grade imagination, I asked my eight year-old son his thoughts about Wallace. He found it hard to believe that Wallace would be President so quickly, since he just arrived there.

What I didn't like about the ending of Behind the Couch was its Toy Story-like sentimentality. Although Zachary still curls up with Wallace when he goes to sleep, he doesn't play with him as much as he did when he was smaller, nowadays preferring Lego blocks and race cars to the stuffed animal that was his very first toy. Wallace recognizes this and at first refuses to go back with Zachary, telling him that he has feelings. Where I thought the book should admit that Zachary is growing up with new interests, from toys to noticing girls, the story has Zachary reaffirming his dedication to his old toy. The reappearance of Uncle Yankle seems tacked on and is only intended to neatly tie up the storyline.

The book is clearly marked for 3rd Graders with a reading comprehension level between 3.1 and 3.5. It is an easy read, divided into 8 chapters, with pictures in every chapter. Early readers will probably enjoy it, too.

[Alicia Eyring · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another chapter book down with Blake! This one was cool with a unique concept! We both enjoyed it.