Book Review: HOW TO BUILD A HOUSE

Author: Dana Reinhardt
Number of Pages: 240
Release Date: May 27, 2008

Harper's home life is falling apart. Her mother died when Harper was only two years old. Her dad and step-mom are getting divorced. Tess, Harper's step-sister and best friend, no longer wishes to talk to her. So when Harper hears about a summer program for teens in which they build houses, she thinks it is the perfect opportunity to get away from her crazy life at home. She travels to Tennessee to with a bunch of other teenagers from all over the country to build a house for a family who's previous home was destroyed by a tornado. While working alongside Teddy, the son of the family the new house is for, she realizes that maybe love can exist.

Let me start off by saying all of the things that I liked about this novel. First, the general idea of the story was unique and one that I hadn't read about before. Next, I thought that the Harper-Teddy relationship was really cute. Also, it was cool how the author went back and forth between Harper's past and the present.

Now for the stuff that I didn't like about this book. To start, it was really short. I think that an increase in the length would really benefit the story. And there really wasn't a whole lot of detail about the building of the house itself; it was really more about the relationships that grew between all of the teenagers. Another thing: no matter what bad things the teenagers did while in this program (sneaking in a midnight swim, girls bunking in guys' room and vice versa, going out to a pub in the middle of the night when they were supposed to be sleeping) they never got in trouble. Now, I'm not saying that I wanted them to get in trouble, it just doesn't seem very realistic to me.

Overall, I was kind of disappointed with this book. I was really excited to read it, but it just didn't Wow! me.

Rating: :0) :0) :0) 3 out of 5 smileys.

Would I recommend it to a friend?: Probably. I mean, it wasn't a horrible book, just not one of my favorites.

Peace,
Aceba