Twig and Turtle: Tiny House Kids Chapter Books!

 A few months ago, I was contacted by Jennifer Jacobson about a series of children's early chapter books she was writing about two sisters who live in a tiny house. Naturally, I was intrigued! She kindly sent us proofs and then later signed copies of the first two books for my girls, and we love these books so much that I had to share them with you!

The Twig and Turtle series revolves around Twig, age eight, and Turtle, age six, who have just moved into their new tiny house in Happy Trails, Colorado. The girls' mother is a photographer, and their father is a comic book creator, and the girls are just starting their first day at their new school when the story begins.

In the first book Big Move to a Tiny House, Twig has to come to terms with the fact that a Great Dane is too big for their tiny house, and the second book, Toy Store Trouble, focuses on Twig's struggles with minimalism and not being able to keep all of the toys that she might want. In both stories, creative solutions are found leave everyone happy in the end.

What I love about this series

Our seven-year-old, Sunshine, has been reading fluently since early this year but mostly easy readers. As soon as I handed the first book to her, she made herself scare and was instantly hooked. It's the first chapter book that she's read completely to herself, and she absolutely loves it. It helped her make the transition from reading aloud to reading silently to herself, so aside from us loving the subject matter, these are just really great books for kids who are ready to transition to chapter books. The chapters are an easy length, and there are illustrations throughout, making them perfect first chapter books.

In addition, the illustrations by Paula Franco are quirky, sweet, beautiful and inclusive. The main characters are white, but friends and classmates come in all shapes and colors, and we actively seek this out for our girls. 

We also love that it's just so real. These struggles, we face them, y'all! The pets and the toys. The tiny details, like the house shaking when Dad comes down from the loft and having to pick up ALL. THE. TIME. These stories help normalize tiny-house living for my girls. I love that Twig struggles with the same things my girls struggle with, and seeing that Twig and Turtle are just normal girls living in a unique home is just so perfect. It's easy to feel like no one else understands what it's like to live in a small home sometimes, but Twig and Turtle understand.

As a more mature reader myself, one of my favorite things about Jennifer Jacobs' writing style is her narrative voice. The story unfolds from inside Twig's head, and Jacobs captures that eight-year-old girl's voice so incredibly well. The stories are entertaining and perfectly humorous in all the right places. They were just a joy to read, even for me as an adult. 

I also appreciate the quality construction of the books themselves. Our girls are...hard on things sometimes. (To put it mildly.) We received hard-back copies with nice, thick pages, and they just have a fantastic feel in hand.

A huge thank you to Jennifer for reaching out to us and sending us these books! We absolutely love them, and to all our readers who are living tiny with young readers, I highly recommend that you check them out for your own kids. The third and fourth books in the series are set to release in 2021, and we're excited to check them out, too!

Happy reading!