Moving the Millers' Minnie Moore Mine Mansion

April 24, 2023
In an alliterative account of a late-19th-century event, Idaho workers relocate a Victorian-style mansion, rolling it four miles on logs while its inhabitants live their lives uninterrupted. Eggers (We Became Jaguars) sets the stage with exuberant editorializing (“Like all of the best stories, this takes place in Idaho”), detailing how a dog’s finding silver in Idaho led to the establishment of the Minnie Moore Mine, later bought by Henry Miller of England (“We can assume that the mine was then known as Miller’s Minnie Moore Mine”). Bringing “a bit of Old World civility to the Old West,” Miller then built his wife, Annie, a house—the Millers’ Minnie Moore Mine Mansion. After Miller died and Annie lost her fortune, the town would not allow her to raise pigs, leading to the move. Working digitally in shades of charcoal, orange, and sienna, Sardà (The Queen in the Cave) captures a stark, angular landscape alongside stylized individuals whose skin reflects the white of the page. Without contextualizing colonial settlement, this moniker-centric celebration of a locale’s personalities and projects is at its best when explaining the move’s logistical details. Ages 4–8.

May 1, 2023
Grades 1-3 "Moving house" takes on an unusual meaning in this tale of a nineteenth century mansion that was transported four miles--intact, with a family living inside--outside of an Idaho town in 1914. Substituting insistence that "This. Actually. Happened." for source citations, Eggers offers a mannered account of how the house came to be built near the Minnie Moore mine and how, when the town objected to having the owners raising pigs in the yard, it was shifted onto logs and rolled off to a new site. The main draw here is likely to be the pictures as, using a palette of sepia and earth tones, Sard� offers glimpses of expressively drawn horses, pigs, and people around stylized but architecturally exact views of a tall wood-frame house rising in its first location, standing through the years and changes in family fortunes, and being rolled in dignified elegance to its current spot by workers with major facial hair. Even if at least some of the finer details are invented, the episode has more than just local appeal.

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May 1, 2023
Eggers lightly fictionalizes a little-known true story of moving house (quite literally). "Like all of the best stories, this takes place in Idaho." Sometime in the 1870s, a prospector's dog located evidence of silver, and soon the Minnie Moore Mine was born. Not long after, the mine was sold to Henry Miller, making it Miller's Minnie Moore Mine. After marrying and building a gigantic house (the Millers' Minnie Moore Mine Mansion), Mr. Miller died. His widow, left with her son and the house and conned out of most of her money by a "crooked banker," purchased pigs to raise and sell, but the folks in town had ordinances about that. Rather than leave her house behind, Mrs. Miller concocted a wild scheme (that actually worked) to move the house out of town. Readers with a low excrement tolerance may wish to steer clear, as Sard� takes a naughty pride in seeing how many bowel movements she can work into the earth-toned piggy spreads. Eggers, meanwhile, delights in language, pulling a very natural humor out of an already silly tale. Though the tale is set in 19th-century Idaho, mention is not made of displaced Indigenous populations, and the entire cast presents as White. (This book was reviewed digitally.) A whimsical reimagining of an obscure historical event. (Picture book. 4-7)

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Starred review from November 10, 2023

Gr 3-6-"Like all of the best stories, this takes place in Idaho." Eggers's utterly enjoyable new offering opens with this tantalizing proclamation and proceeds to weave a wry tale of mining, real estate, unscrupulous bankers, and pigs. The book is based on the true story of pioneer-era widow Annie Miller who, upon finding herself in difficult circumstances, made the rather unusual decision to move her entire home four miles from its original location. This is a story of old-fashioned ingenuity told in a cheeky modern voice and the result, like the author's other nonfiction for young readers, is delightful. Packed with texture, detail, and quiet humor, Sarda's illustrations of this complex undertaking pair perfectly with the book's elegant prose. Though the illustrator uses a subdued color palette to depict hardscrabble scenes of the Old West, her art manages to appear lush and lively, and the scenes go a long way toward telling this little-known story. VERDICT It's a book that will be enjoyed by many: the elementary schooler with an interest in history, architecture, or engineering; the teacher trying to bring the past to life for their students; the librarian trying to sell a reluctant reader on nonfiction. Highly recommended for school libraries.-Kate Newcombe

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