How to Build a House

What does it take to build a home that will last? Harper's dad is getting a divorce from her beloved stepmother, Jane. Even worse, Harper has lost her stepsister, Tess. The divorce divides them just when her best friend, Gabriel, betrays her. Harper decides to get away for the summer and joins a volunteer program to build a house for a family in Tennesee who lost their home in a tornado. Not that she knows a thing about building houses. Soon she's living in a funky motel and working long days in blazing heat with a quirky, terrific group of kids from all over the country. At the site she works alongside Teddy, the son of the family for whom they are building the house. Their partnership turns into a summer romance, complete with power tools. Learning to trust and love Teddy isn't easy for Harper, but it's the first step toward finding her way back home. * "A thoughtful treatment of what it means to rebuild, not just physical structures, but also lives and families."School Library Journal,Starred

Dana Reinhardt lives in Los Angeles with her husband and her two daughters. This is her third novel. She is the author of A Brief Chapter in My Impossible Life and Harmless.


From the Hardcover edition.