What We Found in the Sofa and How It Saved The World (Henry Clark)

What We Found in the Sofa and How It Saved the World
Henry Clark
Little, Brown Books
Fiction, MG Humor/Sci-Fi
**** (Good)

DESCRIPTION: Nothing much ever happens to middle-schoolers River, Freak, and Fiona... well, nothing much good, anyway. River's mother and father died in a car crash when he was two years old. Freak's dad spends most days at the bottom of a beer can after his real estate business cratered. Fiona keeps trying to be friends with the popular girls in school, but they never stop mocking her behind her back. All three also live at the edge of the coal seam fire that has rendered a huge swath of the town uninhabitable, the last three houses left in a once-thriving suburban development (once the pride of Freak's father's real estate business).
Then one day, at their bus stop (just beyond the walls of reclusive Old Man Underhill's castle-like compound), they find a strange green sofa... and in its cushions, they find some odd stuff: a double-headed coin with strange writing, a fish hook, and a weird green crayon labeled "zucchini". It turns out that crayon is a collector's item, potentially worth hundreds, even thousands of dollars - but is it right to sell something they found in someone else's furniture, even if that furniture was sitting out by the curb and clearly destined for the junkyard?
When they decide to ask the old man in the castle if he meant to get rid of the crayon with the couch, the trio find themselves pulled into some very strange goings-on involving the local chemical company, the peculiar wave of flash mobs sweeping the area with spontaneous dance performances (that nobody admits to seeing or participating in), furniture that might be more intelligent than the world's top supercomputers, and the small matter of a madman threatening to enslave the planet.

REVIEW: From the title alone, What We Found in the Sofa and How It Saved the World starts on a whimsical note, but it also has a little character depth and solid heart to it. The trio are all misfits in their way, though Fiona goes out of her way to deny it, to the point where she only associates with the other two before and after school. Freak's home life is a mess, and though nobody outright says the word "abuser", River keeps an eye on him for fresh bruises whenever his friend's father raises his voice. As for River, though he has a loving aunt taking care of him, he's never gotten over the scars from the accident that took his parents (and left one leg slightly shorter than the other, so he limps when he runs). In their own ways, they all could use a good break for once in their lives, but none expected it to come from the cushions of a sofa, let alone within the forbidding walls of Old Man Underhill's property. It turns out the old man passed away some years ago, and the new owner, Alf, is at least as eccentric. He also clearly has a hidden agenda, even when he tries to win over the children, and there are some very bizarre things in his house, including what might be a murderous ghost-granny with an axe. Freak clings to his skepticism a little long, given what they witness, but all three have some legitimate concerns about how far to trust the strange man and just what of his outlandish tale can be believed... especially when another party is telling them conflicting information. It goes without saying that the sofa is much more than an ordinary piece of fancy furniture, and in its way it becomes a character in its own right. As the kids become more and more involved, often without intending to, they learn truths about their town that they never thought to question before, and just how much danger they've always been in without realizing it. It's as much to avenge lost loved ones as to help Alf that they become committed to stopping the terrible plot unfolding around them, centered around the world's rarest crayon.
While the overall tone is light, as mentioned previously, there's also a decent dash of real danger to give it weight, and times where the kids have to use their heads and some light science to get through problems. Once in a while the plot feels slightly manipulative, events being orchestrated in ways that stretch the suspension of disbelief, and something about the ending feels like a pulled punch given how the book hadn't hesitated to let the baddies kill people earlier on (mostly long before the book begins, but still for-realsies, no-crossed-fingers death), with some threads left over that don't feel properly tied up. For all that I'm not entirely sure the ending did justice to the beginning and middle, overall this is a fun, fast-paced adventure.

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