Queenie in Seven Moves

Queenie loves their little house—which she calls Peachy—with a passion, so when her mum tells her that their landlady has sold the place she’s horrified. Her mum has known about it for a while, but she wanted to find somewhere for them to move in to before telling Queenie. Unfortunately, she wasn’t able to. Instead, in one week’s time, they will move into the Diamond Sands Seniors Village, the over 60s place that her mum works at. They can only stay there for two weeks as a new tenant will be moving in. 

This move will be the first of seven they make that year. 

It’s extremely difficult to find somewhere to rent, and Queenie and her mum bounce from place to place. From sharing a house with strangers to living in a clapped out caravan, and more, they never know quite where they’ll end up.

In each of their homes, Queenie learns something about herself and about other people. New friendships are made, old friendships are restored, and their final move is into a home they can trust in. 

A lovely story that showcases some of the challenges faced by families affected by housing shortages due to Covid, and how quickly ordinary people can end up homeless. 

Queenie is an endearing character who has to navigate massive changes, and the fact that her mum—who has been alone for seven years since Queenie’s father died—has a new man in her life. The cross-generational friendships are lovely and Queenie gains some understanding of how awful lockdown must have been for the elderly in particular.  With housing availability becoming a very real issue in recent years, this is likely to resonate with younger readers whose family may have been in a similar position. 

moving house, homelessness, COVID, performing, singing, song writing, being upstaged, multi-generational relationships, nursing home, change, uncertainty, family, friendship, music, creativity, drawing

1. Language: bloody x 2 (p107, 132). 2. At the nursing home Queenie befriends Audrey, who is in her 90s and has a crush on Walter—despite the fact he wanders around in his Y-fronts (p24). 3. Their second move is to a house with a family of strangers who need boarders to help them pay the bills after the dad lost his job due to Covid. The son turns out to be a classmate of Queenie’s, and her school crush, so it’s pretty embarrassing when she has to share a room with him. He kisses her (p102-3) and his mum catches them and blames Queenie. They have to move after that and end up in a caravan on a kind of commune where Queenie’s substitute teacher lives with her girlfriend. Xen (who sees herself as some kind of spiritual healer—the others joke about it, and tell Queenie and her mum not to let Xen ‘read [their] palms’ (p110-111—it’s all very tongue-in-cheek), lives in the garage with her daughter who was named after the Hindu’s Great Goddess, Mother Creator (p111). 4. When the caravan is flooded out, they have no option but to go and stay with Queenie’s mum’s new boyfriend, who turns out to be a very decent man and helps them find a new home.