Moving the Millers' Minnie Moore Mine Mansion: A True Story

Author Dave Eggers and artist Júlia Sardà spin a quirky historical event into a whimsical and tall-ish true tale of American ingenuity.

Make way for history as only Dave Eggers could stage it. It all started when John “Minnie” Moore built a mine in Idaho and sold it to Englishman Henry Miller. Then Henry married a local lass named Annie and built her a mansion, hence the “Millers’ Minnie Moore Mine Mansion.” After Henry died and Annie was hoodwinked—losing all but the mansion—she and her son took to raising pigs in the yard, as some are wont to do. But the town wanted those pigs out. Who could have guessed that Annie and her crew would remove the whole mansion instead—rolling it away slowly on logs—while she and her son were still living in it? Narrated with metafictional flair, this delightfully illustrated picture book is proof positive that nonfiction can be as lively and artful as any storybook.

Dave Eggers is the author of numerous books. Those for adults include What Is the What, Zeitoun, and A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, among others. His books for young readers include Her Right Foot and What Can a Citizen Do?, both illustrated by Shawn Harris; Abner and Ian Get Right-Side Up, illustrated by Laura Park; Tomorrow Most Likely, illustrated by Lane Smith; and the middle-grade novel The Lifters, among others. He is the founder of 826 National, a network of youth writing and tutoring centers around the United States, as well as numerous other foundations and organizations centered on education, human rights, and arts and activism. Dave Eggers lives in Northern California.

Júlia Sardà is a Spanish artist and the author-illustrator of The Queen in the Cave, as well as the illustrator of Mary Who Wrote Frankenstein by Linda Bailey, The Liszts by Kyo Maclear, The Wolf's Secret by Nicolas Digard and Myriam Dahman, and a number of classics, including Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and The Wizard of Oz. Júlia Sardà lives in Barcelona.