Down the Back of the Chair

Starred review from April 10, 2006
When the kids suggest Dad look for his lost car keys in the depths of their wingback chair, the family's fortunes take a dramatic and deliciously silly turn for the better. Mahy's crisp rhyming quatrains, in the voice of a precocious girl, start the action at a comic pitch that escalates with every page. "We're facing rack and ruin./ No car, no work! No work, no pay!/ We're growing poorer by the day." Sticking his hand "down the back of the chair"—a phrase that refers to both a universe under the seat cushion and also the book's refrain—Dad turns up much more than keys or loose change. There's precious jewelry, a menagerie ranging from a conger eel to a pair of tea-drinking elephants plus "a missing twin" and a pirate with a treasure map. Dunbar's (Dog Blue
) watercolor and cut-paper illustrations goose the giddiness of the text without sacrificing a visual equilibrium. She creates a tantalizing contrast as Dad grows ga-ga from the magical goings-on while his children maintain a cool sense of delight. The car keys never surface, but a rich uncle's long lost will and treasure do. It's an inspired flight of fancy—and certain to turn "Down the back of the chair" into a rallying cry in many households. Ages 4-7.