Books by Henry Clark
  • Home
  • Blog
  • What We Found in the Sofa
    • Reviews of Sofa
    • Excerpts From Sofa
    • Sofa Scrapbook
  • Time Travel Happens
  • Time Travel
  • Educator's Guides
    • What We Found in the Sofa
  • Bio
  • Links
Picture
In a surprising last minute decision, the publisher of What We Found in the Sofa and How It Saved the World has recalled all copies of the book printed with the Dangerously Radioactive Cover (initial press run, one million copies) and is shipping, instead, the version of the book with the Only Slightly Radioactive Cover (initial press run, seventeen copies).

What does this mean to you, the reader?

It means you will be able to read the book while holding it in your hands with lead-lined oven mitts, instead of reading it with binoculars from three miles away as a slowly melting robot turns the pages. This has to be more convenient.

Picture
Lead-lined oven mitt with crow. One of 14 ways of looking at a blackbird. An illustration by Jeremy Holmes from What We Found in the Sofa.
How did the Dangerously Radioactive Cover get to be so dangerously radioactive? Obviously, someone was sitting on the sofa while eating plutonium, and got crumbs all over the cushions. But the one million copies with the Dangerously Radioactive Cover are now at the bottom of an abandoned missile silo in Nevada—or possibly a grain elevator in Michigan; Mr. Knuckles, the guy the publisher hired to dispose of the books, wasn’t too specific—and the main thing you, the reader, have to worry about is finding one of the seventeen copies with the Only Slightly Radioactive Cover, which should be fairly easy, because they glow in the dark. It is also a snap to find one if you’ve downloaded the Geiger Counter app to your smartphone.

What's the Book About?

Three friends discover a discarded sofa on the side of the road near their bus stop. Squeezing their hands down between the cushions, they find four seemingly commonplace objects - not to mention the peanut shell, the gum wrapper and the plaid sock - but the four objects turn out to be anything but common. Before they know it, the friends are thrust into an adventure that repeatedly puts their lives in danger and the outcome of which will affect the fate of the world.

(Well, all right. The world gets saved. There's a spoiler right in the book's title. Talk about poor planning. The author originally wanted to call the book Hellsboro, which is the name of the 800-acre underground coal fire the three friends live next to. Nobody else liked that title. But at least it didn't give anything away...)

Picture

What Did Kirkus Reviews Have to Say About the Book?

"Clark’s debut is refreshingly bonkers. It offers thinking kids humor that is neither afraid of the potty nor confined to it. Most of the characters (and some of the furniture) have their quirks, but there is a realism at the core that readers will respond to. Puns and wordplay abound in this droll science-y/fantasy adventure that’s sure to please...and is, one hopes, the first of many from Clark."
Picture

Here's the map Jeremy drew of the town where the book takes place...

Picture

Definitely a town with some problems...

To see more of Jeremy Holmes' artwork, visit www.jeremyholmesstudio.com

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.