I am an author and illustrator of educational, humorous, and most-of-all heartfelt books for children. Here you can learn more about them, my paintings, my visits to schools, and me.

Pinch and Dash and the Terrible Couch

written by Michael J. Daley
illustrated by Thomas F. Yezerski
Charlesbridge Publishing, 2013
48 pp., full-color illustrations
ages 5-8
ISBN-10: 1-580-89379-1
ISBN-13: 978-1-58089-379-4

Summary

Following Pinch and Dash Make Soup, the best friends return with a brand new problem to work out. Movers deliver a couch to Pinch from his Aunt Hasty that doesn’t fit his style or his cozy room. Dash comes over to help, but rearranging the furniture only irks Pinch all the more. This is an easy reader with six chapters that will tickle as well as teach.

Reviews and Awards

“Pinch and Dash are likable fellows, in much the same vein as Frog and Toad and other classic friendship duos — even if we’re not entirely sure what kind of animals they are. Yezerski’s loose lines, filled in with skillfully applied watercolor, give this a casual, approachable feel, and the garish red-orange print of the couch contrasts amusingly with the more sedate colors of Pinch’s decor. The couch may be terrible, but the book is a charmer.”

— Bulletin for the Center for Children’s Books

“Junior Library Guild Selection”

“...[T]heir second adventure features the same easy-to-read format and droll humor. Bright watercolor illustrations provide emerging readers with plenty of textual clues. This early chapter book makes a welcome addition to most collections.”

— School Library Journal

“A good choice for newly independent readers not quite ready for longer fiction.”

— Kirkus Reviews

Details

I am a big fan of physical comedy, in which funny things happen to the characters. Michael Daley, the author of the Pinch and Dash books, happens to be a funny writer. His words immediately put pictures in my head of all the funny things happening to Pinch. I laughed out loud when I thought of the looks Pinch would have on his face each time something went wrong.

Even though Michael’s writing does such a good job describing the action, sometimes it is a puzzle for me to figure out what the action looks like. I had that challenge with Pinch and Dash and the Terrible Couch, because Pinch and Dash moved the terrible couch around the room so often. I had to show in my pictures where the couch is stuck and how it got stuck. To see it in my head, I drew a floor plan of Pinch’s study. Then I drew all the furniture described in the text and placed it on my floor plan for every scene in the book.

I also love the characters Michael makes up. In this story, he introduced two new characters, Push and Shove. They are movers, and they are tough and gruff. Just as with Pinch and Dash, I had to sketch Push and Shove many times to figure out what they look like. My first though was that they would be twins like Tweedledum and Tweedledee, in Alice in Wonderland. Then I had the idea that they should be short — even shorter than Pinch. I think if they were big and tall, and they spoke the way they do, they might seem scary. I think it’s also funny that they are so strong even though they are small.