Builder Brothers Big Plans

Jonathan and Drew are identical twin brothers who are used to getting laughed at for their big plans. But they don’t let that stop them from dreaming about building things like a treehouse-castle with a firefighter’s pole or a double-decker doghouse. Their stick-drawn plans in the dirt become reality after they read books on architecture, make multiple revisions, and gather inspiration from others around them. They buy the supplies for their project by pooling together all the money in their piggy banks, and they transport the supplies back home in a little red wagon.

The Adobe Photoshop illustrations show the brothers using a saw, hammer and nails and sandpaper (they wear safety glasses when sawing wood). Although they follow their plans, the brothers make a mistake. But after some brainstorming and some alterations, they figure out how to turn the finished project into something beautiful and useful. The book ends with a conversation about the connection between plans coming to fruition and dreams as well as one page of instructions on building a birdhouse using an empty milk or juice carton.

Children who look at the back photograph on the cover may recognize the authors of this book from their television show, Property Brothers. The two small dogs that appear in the story also appear on the back cover with the authors.