Evie is having a hard time at home. Her sister Grace is driving her crazy (especially with her recorder playing), Mum and Dad seem too busy with devices and computers and work and while she loves her four year old baby sister Charlotte, she also takes a lot of energy because she has cystic fibrosis.
Evie decides she needs to leave home but with only $57 where can she go? In their street there is an empty block of land. There are six houses and each of the books in this series features one of the kids from this cul de sac. In the first book the kids end up moving an old couch onto the empty land. Evie has a brilliant idea. Perhaps she could buy a caravan and move it onto the empty block then she would be close to home but also able to live away from all the stuff that bugs her. But of course she discovers caravans cost thousands of dollars. Searching on the internet she reads about tiny houses. NOT cubby houses. Real houses that are tiny - designed for ONE person. This sounds perfect. BUT where will she get the materials, how will she cope with the actual construction, especially when she is hopeless at maths? One thing Evie is good at, though, is drawing and design. She is also a problem solver and luckily there are lots of videos on YouTube about building houses, even tiny ones like hers.
Team work makes the dream work. Zak is good at maths; Roco's dad Mr Santos works on building sites so he might be able to get recycled materials; Mrs Katz has a shed full of tools that her husband does not need anymore; Luisa is a sensible girl and she is also good at measuring; Dad thinks the idea can work; and little Charlotte is so excited because she is sure the new house will have a princess tower.
Mum on the other hand seems to be against the project. It feels as though she is against Evie herself. But this just spurs Evie on to try even hard to succeed.
Of course things do go wrong and Evie almost gives up on her dream but ...
Here are a few text quotes to give you a flavour of this writing:
"Build your own tiny house. What's a tiny house? I search and find a whole lot of little one-room houses that people have built on farms and in forests. They are just a box with a door and a window, basically. They're built our of wood rather than brick. Most of them look like mini log cabins."
Visiting Mr Santos: "I suddenly have the thought that standing here with my dad makes me feel younger. I can change from being older to younger five times a in a day, depending on what I am going or who I'm with. I don't always notice at the time, but I notice it now. I have the feeling that I could reach out and hold Dad's hand really easily. That it's nice to feel little."
"Some people get the heebie-jeebies from fingernails on a blackboard. Some people get it from Velcro tearing. I get if from two places. The screech of rubbing against polystyrene and my sister Grace. It's like I have a secret button, and if it gets pressed, it will send electric shock waves to every one of my nerve endings and make me want to roar. Well, Grace knows exactly where the button is."
"We're all so different in this street. There's Milo, who's always unsure, and there's Frog, who never is. There's Rocco, who's always trying to be someone, and Luisa, who just seems effortlessly confident. Zak is trying to find the right way all the time and I just want to create something great. I'm not sure any of us would be friends it we didn't live in this street and if we didn't share Turtle Palace. But we do. And I think we are. Friends."
This is the third book in this series. I LOVED the first book - Milo finds $105. I have the second book Frog's mystery Twin on my to read list.
I am smiling a HUGE smile. The third book from this series is funny and honest. It is filled with real kids and contains a wonderful project which, even though it seems impossible (spoiler alert) this is a project that Evie can can achieve. I certainly didn't expect it to work and the best part is the way constructing the tiny house brings everyone - kids and grown ups - together.
The perfect companion book is this old title (long out of print but it might be in a school library).
Take a look at my Pinterest collection of books about Moving House. Here is Matt Stanton's web page. He is the author of heaps of popular books. Listen to the beginning of Evie Dreams big here. You can hear an interview with Matt Stanton here (begin at 14.35). I also have a Pinterest of Treehouses and forts.
Here are some of my favourite books about building houses:
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