Tiny House, Big Fix

Volume XXVI / Issue 17 - January 10 / 2020
Tiny House, Big Fix
Tiny House, Big Fix
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Tiny House, Big Fix

Author: 
Gail Anderson-Dargatz
Series: 
Rapid Reads
Victoria, BC: Orca, 2019
136 pp., pbk., pdf & epub, $9.95 (pbk.)
ISBN: 
9781459821187 (pbk.)
9781459821194 (pdf)
9781459821200 (epub)
Grades: 
Grades 11 and up
Ages: 
Ages 16 and up
Review by: 
Teresa Iaizzo
2
Excerpt: 

I can’t say staying at Alice’s place for those four months was easy. But after living in the travel trailer for a month, her apartment seemed big. And I was surprised at how quickly my view of things had shifted. Before my divorce, I’d thought I needed a big house and a whole lot of things to be happy. Now I was just happy to have a roof over my head.

Getting rid of my stuff was also freeing. When we’d moved into the travel trailer, we had put some furniture in a small storage unit. But the girls and I had gotten rid of most of our extra clothing and other unused things.

As we moved a second time into Alice’s apartment, we got rid of even more stuff. I felt like I was finally letting go of my old life, the one I’d once shared with my ex-husband, Kevin. Of course, dating Liam also helped me forget the life I’d left behind.

Sadie is a single parent trying to raise her two young daughters while working all day at a construction site. And now, she has a big problem. After being asked to leave her rental home by her landlord, Sadie and her daughters have nowhere to go.

To make matters worse, there is a huge housing crisis in her town. There aren’t enough homes, and rental prices are going through the roof. When Sadie gets evicted, she has no choice but to move her family into a travel trailer in the middle of a campsite.

Stuck with the very real possibility of losing her daughters, Sadie decides to build her very own tiny house, a house that is less than four hundred square feet. With the help of her friends and her children, Sadie soon begins to realize that it doesn’t matter how big your house is, it is the people inside who really matter.

Written with depth and honesty, Tiny House, Big Fix takes a very real issue and makes it accessible to readers. Although the novel is well-written with a realistic plot and character development, I honestly feel like it will not appeal to a teenage fan base. For me, this novel is definitely for a more mature crowd and should be considered for adult readers.

Recommended with Reservations
Reviewer: 

Teresa Iaizzo is a librarian with the Toronto Public Library.