Three moves after leaving their big house, first-grader Turtle, third-grader Twig, and their parents are finally settling into their new tiny home in Happy Trails, Colorado, and are starting their year's third first day of school. While Turtle easily makes new friends, Twig has a difficult time, and it seems that some of her classmates might even be making fun of her. She misses Bo, her grandma's Great Dane, the most, and Twig is devastated when she learns that Grandma might have to find him a new home. With a little help from her teacher, Twig joins the Social Skills Club, where she makes new friends and finds out that her classmates weren't making fun of her at all d actually want to help her find a way to bring Bo to Happy Trails. Quick, illustrated chapters, appealing characters, and interesting plot points make for a promising chapter-book series starter. The girls' tiny house and their sisterly bond are sure to draw early readers back in for more.

HGTV meets the early-chapter-book set in this series starter featuring sisters Twig and Turtle. The girls' parents decide to move from their large home in Boston to Happy Trails, Colorado, and purchase a "tiny house" that will allow them to, in third grader Twig's words, save "money and...the earth at the same time." Their living conditions impose some limits: the girls must respect personal space; give others privacy; and reduce clothing to three pairs of pants, three shirts, and two pairs of shoes. But the biggest issue is that there is no room for Bo, a Great Dane whom Twig loves with all her heart but who had to be left with the girls' grandmother, creating a situation that forms the story's arc and demands some straightforward problem-solving. The solution is a creative but believable one, arrived at through Twig's resolve and the help of her classmates. Twig's adjustment to a new school rings true; half-page illustrations appear every five pages or so to nicely break up the reading; the language is natural; and Jacobson's repeated use of bulleted lists helps group multiple ideas. Twig's engaging narration introduces characters many newly independent readers will want to know better. Betty Carter

There are so many challenging changes in Twig's world.Twig and her little sister, Turtle, are facing a first day of school for the third time, and it's only October. Their parents sold their home in Boston, moved temporarily to live with Grandma in Denver, and now to a new, tiny house in Happy Trails, Colorado, so confining that almost everything had to be left behind, including Bo, a beloved Great Dane. When Grandma tells them she has found a new family for Bo, Twig must find a way to get him back. With the help of new friends and teachers, and a lot of research and planning, Twig comes up with an amazing solution that will bring Bo back into her life, help children with reading, and provide companionship for Mr. Kim, the school custodian (who appears only twice in the action). Readers will find Twig and Turtle delightful, coping with their unusual and interesting obstacles with determination and great resourcefulness. Unfortunately Jacobson's cast of secondary characters is quite one-dimensional. Upsetting actions at first meetings with classmates are revealed to be completely unintentional and easily explained away. Mom and Dad are loving but distracted. The Social Skills Club leader leads her charges unerringly to self-awareness and happiness. Even Writing Workshop protocols are perfectly aligned with Twig's success. Twig and Turtle's family presents White; illustrations reveal a vibrantly diverse student body. Sequel Toy Store Trouble publishes simultaneously.Superficial-but still comforting and reassuring, with problems neatly tied up and solved. (Fiction. 7-9)