How to Build a House

Starred review from April 7, 2008
Reinhardt artfully parallels the construction of a house with the reconstruction of a broken family in a work as intimate and intelligently wrought as her previous YA novels, A Brief Chapter in My Impossible Life
and Harmless
. Shaken by the recent divorce of her father and stepmother and her separation from stepsister and best friend, Tess, Harper Evans jumps at the chance to participate in a summer program in a small Tennessee town, where she and other high school students will build a new house for a family whose home was destroyed by a tornado. Harper aims to bury herself in physical labor to forget about problems back in L.A., but gets sidetracked when she falls in love with Teddy, one of the house's intended residents. Weaving flashbacks of Harper's home life before and after the divorce into the romance between Harper and Teddy, Reinhardt builds a story within a story: one exploring reasons the heroine feels betrayed, the other focusing on how she learns to trust again. This meticulously crafted book illustrates how both homes and relationships can be resurrected through hard work, hope and teamwork. Ages 12-up.

Starred review from June 1, 2008
Gr 9 Up-Seventeen-year-old Harper Evans is spending her summer with Homes from the Heart, a teen volunteer organization that is rebuilding a home in Bailey, TN, after the town is hit by a major tornado. Harper, an LA resident, has never built anything, but she wants to help, and she also wants to get away from the havoc in her own life. Her father and stepmother are getting divorced, her sometime-boyfriend Gabriel, with whom she is sexually active, is indifferent, and her beloved stepsister, Tess, is increasingly distant and seemingly hostile toward her. As Harper says, "I know a thing or two about people whose homes have been destroyed. Their lives uprooted. Everything gone." As the summer progresses, Harper becomes increasingly confident as she learns how to handle power tools and flash a doorsill. She also begins to rebuild her own life as she forms new friendships with her fellow volunteers, begins a romantic relationship with the son of the family for whom the house is being built, and eventually moves toward a reconciliation with Tess. This is a thoughtful treatment of what it means to rebuild, not just physical structures, but also lives and families, and the novel emphasizes values such as compassion for others and forgiveness without becoming preachy. Harper is a sympathetic, believable character whose narrative voice expresses wit and heartbreak, and her emotional journey will have tremendous appeal for mature teen readers."Kathleen E. Gruver, Burlington County Library, Westampton, NJ"

Copyright 2008 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

April 15, 2008
When you live in California and have relatives in New York, everything in between feels like a big inconvenience, says 17-year-old Harper. But even the middle of the country sounds better to Harper than her own home, which feels empty since her stepmother and stepsiblings moved out. Harper is also eager to leave Gabriel, her sort-of boyfriend behind, so she signs up as a summer volunteer to build houses for tornado victims in Bailey, Tennessee. In chapters that alternate between recollections of her past year and her Tennessee summer, Harper slowly reveals the events in L.A. that led to heartbreak and then the healing work, friendships, and romanceshe finds in Bailey. Reinhardt adds great depth to the familiar story of a teen changed by a summer escape with strong characters andperceptive, subtle explorations of love, family, sex, and friendshipall narrated in Harpers believable voice. Teens, especially young women on the verge of independence, will see themselves in Harper, her questions, and her resilient heart.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2008, American Library Association.)

July 1, 2008
Knowing nothing about house-building but loads about how a home can fall to pieces, seventeen-year-old Harper volunteers to help build a house for a family that lost theirs in a tornado. The distance from L.A. to Bailey, Tennessee, isn't enough to escape her grief for her broken-up family and her frustration with her friend Gabriel. Soon, however, she finds friendship and more with Teddy, son of the family whose house they're building, who is working alongside the other teens signed up for the twelve-week project. Teddy's home and belongings are gone, but his family survived the tornado intact; Harper's house is still standing, but she has lost to divorce her beloved stepmother, who has moved out with Harper's little half-brother and two stepsisters, one of whom is Harper's best friend. As Harper helps rebuild Teddy's home, Teddy helps Harper salvage her family relationships. Sections alternate between "Here" and "Home" as likable narrator Harper catches readers up on her past; the many parallels between the house-building and the home-wrecking (then rebuilding) are clearly drawn but subtle and believable. Readers will find this story full of difficulty and pain -- but ultimately deeply satisfying.

(Copyright 2008 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)

July 1, 2008
Seventeen-year-old Harper volunteers to help build a house for a family that lost theirs in a tornado. Sections alternate between "Here" and "Home" as likable narrator Harper catches readers up on her own broken family. The many parallels between house-building and home-wrecking (then rebuilding) are subtle and believable. The story, full of difficulty and pain, is ultimately deeply satisfying.

(Copyright 2008 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)