Project and content management for Contemporary Authors volumes
WORK TITLE: Rise
WORK NOTES:
PSEUDONYM(S):
BIRTHDATE:
WEBSITE: https://carabrookins.com/
CITY: Little Rock
STATE: AR
COUNTRY:
NATIONALITY:
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/mother-of-four-cara-brookins-builds-her-family-a-house-by-watching-youtube-tutorials/ * http://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/national/article126288094.html * https://www.buzzfeed.com/juliegerstein/a-woman-and-her-kids-built-a-house-from-scratch-us?utm_term=.hi137rODO#.cxAy28OLO
RESEARCHER NOTES:
LC control no.: n 2005034107
LCCN Permalink: https://lccn.loc.gov/n2005034107
HEADING: Brookins, Cara
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670 __ |a Brookins, Cara. Doris Free, 2006: |b CIP t.p. (Cara Brookins)
670 __ |a Rise, 2017: |b ECIP t.p. (Cara Brookins) data view (computer analyst and social media marketing expert; also author of middle grade and young adult novels; based in Little Rock, Arkansas)
953 __ |a lb22
PERSONAL
Divorced; children: four.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Computer analyst, social media marketing professional, and author; host of podcast Raise My Roof.
WRITINGS
SIDELIGHTS
Computer analyst Cara Brookins made a new life for herself and her four children by building the family a house, an experience she recounts in her memoir Rise: How a House Built a Family. Married at age eighteen and a first-time mother at age nineteen, Brookins had hoped for a happy domestic life. Instead, she and her children suffered domestic abuse and poverty. Her first marriage was brief and ended in divorce. Brookins married a second time only to discover that this husband was a schizophrenic who went on to stalk and terrorize the family long after their divorce. Her third husband, Matt, was a heavy drinker and drug user who abused her and forced the family to live in fear. After finally obtaining a divorce from him, Brookins was forced to sell the family house. Without financial resources to buy another home and with three teenagers and a two-year-old to take care of, she desperately needed shelter, especially because she did not want her abusive ex-husband to be able to find her or the children. By chance one day, she saw a big old house that had been badly damaged by a storm. Wandering through it, she began wondering whether she could build a suitable house for her family by herself. Though she knew nothing about how to go about this complicated process, she began doing research. Obtaining a loan, she bought a piece of property and eventually, with her children’s help, constructed a 3,500 square foot, five-bedroom house that also included a large garage, a workshop area, and even a two-story treehouse. Completed in early 2009, it cost the author 130,000 dollars and was later appraised at half a million dollars. The idea of building a house was not something the family had embraced as an amusing pastime, the author emphasizes in her book; by contrast, the idea “rose as the only possible way to rebuild my shattered family while we worked through the shock waves of domestic violence and mental illness.”
Though the author found lots of helpful information from personnel at Home Depot, she and her children taught themselves the basics of house construction by watching videos on YouTube. They had to figure out how to make blueprints and obtain necessary building permits. They poured concrete, laid bricks, framed walls and windows, and connected plumbing and wiring. They put in fiberglass insulation, tore out mistakes, and painstakingly redid work over and over again until it was finally right. The construction process took nine months, during which Brookins was working full time and her kids were in school. “It hurt,” she told Miami Herald writer Brian Murphy. “We would work into the night sometimes by headlights. It was incredibly intense. There was nobody going to the movies. There were no dates, no hanging out. It was all hands on deck.”
Reviewers remarked on the optimism and frankness of Brookins’s memoir. The book “beautifully illustrates how one family can look apprehension dead in the eye and scoff at it,” observed Booklist contributor Donna Chavez. Admiring the author’s writing as straightforward and “tough,” a reviewer for Publishers Weekly said that the author “deftly narrates the extreme learning curve the family experienced during the construction process, while putting a family back together again.” A writer for Kirkus Reviews said that Rise is “not without its flaws” but nevertheless offers a highly inspiring story about what can be achieved by sheer determination.
Brookins has also written several books for middle-school readers and young adults. Following the success of Rise, she has hosted Raise My Roof, a Macmillan podcast in which she interviews ordinary people about their experiences overcoming adversity. Subjects have included coping with domestic abuse and grief; setting goals and finding motivation; and using storytelling and other creative techniques in entrepreneurial ways.
BIOCRIT
BOOKS
Brookins, Cara, Rise: How a House Built a Family, St. Martin’s Press (New York, NY), 2017.
PERIODICALS
Booklist, November 1, 2016, Donna Chavez, review of Rise: How a House Built a Family, p. 11.
BookPage, February, 2017, Carol Davala, review of Rise, p. 26.
Kirkus Reviews, November 15, 2016, review of Rise.
Publishers Weekly, August 8, 2016, review of Rise, p. 51.
ONLINE
Cara Brookins Home Page, https://carabrookins.com (May 15, 2017).
CBS News Online, http://www.cbsnews.com/ (January 12, 2017), “Mother-of-Four Cara Brookins Builds Her Family a House by Watching YouTube Tutorials.”
Daily Mail Online (London, England), http://www.dailymail.co.uk/ (January 13, 2017), Hannah Parry, interview with Brookins.
Miami Herald Online, http://www.miamiherald.com/ (January 12, 2017), Brian Murphy, “She and Her Four Kids Built Their Dream Home—by Watching YouTube Videos.”
elcome to the rather strange space I built for myself! I’m not talking about the house I built, it’s not strange at all and I’ll get to all that in a minute. I mean this surreal moment of my life where strangers across the country (um, world, actually) are reading about my biggest mistakes and fears—even flipping through a photo album of my kids, and planning the best ways to market my real life in print and in film.
I intended to be a fiction writer, not a truth teller. I never imagined anything like this would happen with a book about my real life. Yes, I know I wrote the book, but I only imagined my kids and maybe a few friends would ever flip through it.
So… yikes!
But it’s also incredible to own my history all the way through. I’ll never have to worry again, “But would they really like me if they knew the truth?” Because there it is in black and white with a color photo insert. The good and the bad of me. Take it or leave it.
My story began where I grew up in rural Wisconsin. That’s where I developed a deep love of family stories, climbing trees, and cheese. I also spent a lot of time building things. Back then I was small so I made very small things, like scarves for my stuffed seal and sleeping bags for caterpillars—true story.
After I grew up and had four kids of my own, I should have built big things, but I was in several situations that made me feel smaller than ever, like domestic violence and being stalked by a man with a mental illness, so my goals and my future stayed small too.
Cara BrookinsUntil one day after my kids and I were on our own and I had this great BIG idea. My kids were 17, 15, 11, and 2 and they had been knocked down so many times that they needed something big as badly as I did. (Okay honestly, they just wanted their own rooms.)
Long story short, we needed a house so we built one.
Not just any house. We built a 3500 square foot house with five bedrooms, a three car garage, a huge shop, and a two-story treehouse.
While our toes nearly froze off as we mixed concrete in a wheelbarrow, our back muscles ached from hauling two-by-fours, and we sweated and itched our way through fiberglass insulation—we also rebuilt our broken family.
Cara BrookinsThen we started thinking BIG in every way and I wrote that memoir. The next thing I knew it sold in a big New York publishing auction. Then it became an Indy Next Pick and a Barnes and Noble front of store selection for “What We’re Reading”. Our story landed in magazines and inspired Raise My Roof, a new Macmillan podcast where I interview experts, activists, and celebrities about things they’ve overcome and what they’re building now.
If you’re new to our story, you should pick up a copy of Rise, How a House Built a Family. Already have one? I bet you know someone who could use the motivation if you grab another. (Right here!)
Brookins, Cara: RISE
Kirkus Reviews.
(Nov. 15, 2016):
COPYRIGHT 2016 Kirkus Media LLC
http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
Full Text:
Brookins, Cara RISE St. Martin's (Adult Nonfiction) $25.99 1, 24 ISBN: 978-1-250-09566-4
A memoir of a mother and her children building a house--and security--from the ground up.Throughout her uplifting book, Brookins, a computer
analyst, social media marketing expert, and author of middle-grade and young-adult novels (Gadget Geeks, 2015, etc.), consistently displays her
relentless optimism. The author begins with the birth of her first child when she was 19. A child of divorce and married at 18, Brookins was
confident that she could carry her child--soon to be children--away from the romantic problems that plagued her. These relationships were
hobbled by various factors, including schizophrenia, drugs, and, finally, abuse. Brookins successfully extricated herself from her partner's abuse,
but the trauma and anxiety of his return, along with financial hardship, left Brookins with no choice but to move on. Unsure of what to do next,
the author eventually hit on the idea of building a house with her children. "The idea of building our own home was not born out of boredom,"
she writes, "but rose as the only possible way to rebuild my shattered family while we worked through the shock waves of domestic violence and
mental illness. The dangers of our past were more difficult to leave behind than we ever imagined." Despite the seemingly insurmountable odds,
Brookins and her children waded into battle repeatedly, measuring, ordering, hammering, pouring concrete, and pulling apart finished work to put
it back together again only to find the one thing they had counted on going right had gone wrong. The author occasionally characterizes her
children in ways that make them seem like caricatures rather than individuals trying to work through the instability and uncertainty. However,
when she turns the focus on their work, Brookins draws a compelling picture of overcoming adversity and battling against problems from the past
that continued to threaten the new life they built.Not without its flaws but an inspiring memoir of absolute determination.
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
"Brookins, Cara: RISE." Kirkus Reviews, 15 Nov. 2016. General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?
p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA469865646&it=r&asid=b9ca5b73a6b1674059a77ffb5dcfc1db. Accessed 25 Apr.
2017.
4/25/2017 General OneFile - Saved Articles
http://go.galegroup.com/ps/marklist.do?actionCmd=GET_MARK_LIST&userGroupName=schlager&inPS=true&prodId=ITOF&ts=1493171751317 2/6
Gale Document Number: GALE|A469865646
4/25/2017 General OneFile - Saved Articles
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Rise
Carol Davala
BookPage.
(Feb. 2017): p26.
COPYRIGHT 2017 BookPage
http://bookpage.com/
Full Text:
RISE
By Cara Brookins
St. Martin's
$25.99, 320 pages
ISBN 9781250095664
Audio, eBook available
MEMOIR
[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]
Escaping the fallout of failed marriages and domestic abuse, on a weekend getaway Cara Brookins happened upon a stately home ravaged by
Mother Nature. Her walk through the home's crumbling remains became the impetus for a plan to build a new house for herself and her four
children. Beyond financial necessity and the empowering prospects of tackling such a grandiose do-it-yourself project, Brookins hoped the home
would help heal her fractured family.
Rise: How a House Built a Family takes readers along on a transformative journey. Brookins marks off the acre of land she has purchased with a
bag of self-rising flour, then secures a bank loan. With the help of YouTube videos and a learn-as-you-go attitude, Brookins and her kids lay
bricks, frame walls, integrate plumbing and build their dream. Brookins captures the process in rise and fall chapters: The rises highlight house
construction, while the falls offer heart-rending memories of trauma inflicted by a schizophrenic ex-husband.
While building a five-bedroom house may not be for everyone, all readers can find inspiration in Brookins' endeavor. In an age when few
adolescents would forgo extracurricular activities, endure exhausting manual labor and accept a tool belt for Christmas, her young crew pitches in
4/25/2017 General OneFile - Saved Articles
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for the greater good of the family.
Perhaps 15-year-old Drew says it best when he admonishes his sister, "You built your own damn house, you can do anything."
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
Davala, Carol. "Rise." BookPage, Feb. 2017, p. 26. General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?
p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA479076936&it=r&asid=56c5af0b85f720ca02a2a4ab5c581c1c. Accessed 25 Apr.
2017.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A479076936
4/25/2017 General OneFile - Saved Articles
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Rise: How a House Built a Family
Donna Chavez
Booklist.
113.5 (Nov. 1, 2016): p11.
COPYRIGHT 2016 American Library Association
http://www.ala.org/ala/aboutala/offices/publishing/booklist_publications/booklist/booklist.cfm
Full Text:
Rise: How a House Built a Family. By Cara Brookins. Jan. 2017.320p. illus. St. Martin's, $25.99 (9781250095664); e-book, $12.99
(9781250095671). 818.
Brookins' rousing memoir beautifully illustrates how one family can look apprehension dead in the eye and scoff at it. Armed with little more
than chutzpah and the Internet, this single mother mustered her only allies--her four children, including one toddler--to build a house from the
ground up. The catalyst? An abusive ex-husband who threatened to show up and terrorize them as long as he could locate them. The plan? To
build a home where he wouldn't be able to find them. Perhaps it was her experience with three very bad marriage choices, or maybe it was her
childhood in a dysfunctional family. Or it could be that the D in her DNA stood for determination. Wherever her strength of purpose originated, it
never failed her throughout the nearly yearlong construction process. Sure, her energy flagged occasionally. There's no way a writer can build a
house without a self-doubt or two. But for readers looking for inspiration to accomplish a daunting task, they need look no further than Brookins'
highly engaging and encouraging book.--Donna Chavez
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
Chavez, Donna. "Rise: How a House Built a Family." Booklist, 1 Nov. 2016, p. 11. General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?
p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA471142741&it=r&asid=e9aa9a2a5741ad1aa03b8617a76a982b. Accessed 25 Apr.
2017.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A471142741
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Rise: How a House Built a Family
Publishers Weekly.
263.32 (Aug. 8, 2016): p51.
COPYRIGHT 2016 PWxyz, LLC
http://www.publishersweekly.com/
Full Text:
Rise: How a House Built a Family
Cara Brookins. St. Martin's, $25.99 (320p) ISBN 978-1-250-09566-4
In this honest, tough memoir, Brooking documents how building a home for herself and her four children created a pathway out of domestic
abuse and into a new life. One of her husbands suffered from schizophrenia; her next husband drank heavily, used drugs, and, within a few
months of their wedding, began abusing the author. Brookings, a computer analyst based in Little Rock, Ark., calls herself an optimist, noting she
always "believed things would get better." Brookings, as well as her children, lived in fear even after the author's divorce. Selling the family
home was a financial necessity. During a family outing over Thanksgiving, Brookings spots her dream home. Though recently ravaged by a
tornado, the once "regal and very Southern home" plants a seed in her consciousness. "Why couldn't I build a house?" The narrative alternates
between describing the fear her children and the author lived with for years with the complications and rewards of building a home from the
ground up with no experience. Brookings finds land, obtains a loan, and sets out with the help of her four children to build their new home in nine
months. Brookings deftly narrates the extreme learning curve the family experienced during the construction process, while putting a family back
together again. Agent, Jessica Papin; Dystel & Goderich Literary. (Dec.)
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
"Rise: How a House Built a Family." Publishers Weekly, 8 Aug. 2016, p. 51+. General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?
p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA460900388&it=r&asid=516a6821de6e73974b0b19553b1f0bea. Accessed 25 Apr.
2017.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A460900388
In this excerpt from her podcast "Raise My Roof" author Cara Brookins and her oldest daughter Hope discuss what it was like to build their house from scratch, armed with a love for DIY and YouTube tutorials. Both women have their own businesses and brands now, and discuss how they tackled all these pursuits. To listen to the rest of this episode, visit www.carabrookins.com/raisemyroof Courtesy of Cara Brookins, www.carabrookins.com/raisemyroof
NATIONAL
JANUARY 12, 2017 9:50 PM
She and her four kids built their dream home — by watching YouTube videos
BY BRIAN MURPHY
BMURPHY@MCCLATCHY.COM
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Cara Brookins needed a home big enough for her four children.
So Brookins, who had left her abusive husband and did not have enough money to purchase a house, built one along with her children (ages 17, 15, 11 and 2), aided by how-to YouTube videos.
Brookins tells her story in her new book, “Rise: How a House Built a Family.”
ADVERTISING
“While our toes nearly froze off as we mixed concrete in a wheelbarrow, our back muscles ached from hauling two-by-fours, and we sweated and itched our way through fiberglass insulation—we also rebuilt our broken family,” Brookins wrote on her website.
Brookins, a computer analyst, took out a loan to purchase the lot and supplies. She and her children poured concrete, framed the wall and laid the bricks for a two-story, 3,500-square-foot, five-bedroom home in Arkansas. They built the home in 2008.
“With just a little bit at a time, we figured out how to lay a foundation block. There was a lot of asking people at Home Depot for help, too,” she told KTHV.
In an interview with CBS, she said, “This was 2008, so YouTube was not then what it is now. There weren’t really comprehensive videos or channels devoted to this sort of thing. But there’s a lot of ways to frame a window or to put a foundation together. So, we would watch three or four videos for each stage of construction and then think, ‘Which one of these is going to work the best for us?’”
Family Built Home Using YouTube from Cara Brookins on Vimeo.
It took nine months to build the house.
“It hurt. It was not something that was a great match to us physically, but my kids got up every day and they came out here,” Brookins told CBS News. “I was working all day and they were in school, and we would work into the night sometimes by headlights. It was incredibly intense. There was nobody going to the movies. There were no dates, no hanging out. It was all hands on deck.”
Brookins said she was the victim of domestic abuse from a husband with mental illness and that her children “had been knocked down so many times that they needed something big as badly as I did,” she wrote on her website.
“I’ve learned I can do anything,” said Hope, Brookins’ oldest child.
Brookins’s book, a memoir about escaping domestic violence and building the house, will be released on Jan. 24. She has also written seven novels and hosts the “Raise My Roof” podcast, available on iTunes and Stitcher.
Cara Brookins Cara Brookins (middle) with her four children in front of their home. Cara Brookins Cara Brookins (middle) with her four children in front of their home.
Cara Brookins (middle) with her four children in front of their home. CaraBrookins.com Photos courtesy of Ashley Murphy
Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/national/article126288094.html#storylink=cpy
How to rebuild your life: Incredible story of Arkansas mother of four who escaped domestic violence and then built her own half a million dollar home by watching YouTube tutorials
Cara Brookins fled her 'controlling and violent' husband with her four children
She wanted a fresh start for her family but could not afford to buy a house
So she decided they would build it themselves - despite having no experience
Instead they taught themselves using YouTube tutorials to create an incredible five bedroom home Inkwell Manor
'Building a house was the most difficult challenge we ever faced,' said Brookins 'and so was rebuilding our family amid the trauma of abuse'
By Hannah Parry For Dailymail.com
PUBLISHED: 14:17 EDT, 12 January 2017 | UPDATED: 02:15 EDT, 13 January 2017
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An Arkansas mother who fled domestic violence with her four children has shared the incredible story of how she rebuilt her family, by building her own home by watching YouTube tutorials.
When Cara Brookins escaped her 'controlling and violent' husband in 2008, she was not only broke, she and her family felt broken.
'We had been beaten so far down, that taking some sort of leap of a cliff, there felt like there was a lot less risk of failure,' Brookins told DailyMail.com.
'Because we'd already failed so big. What had I got left to lose?'
But she knew that she had to give her kids a new start if they ever had a chance of leaving the trauma behind them. And as she couldn't afford to buy a new home, they would have to roll up their sleeves and build it themselves.
Cara Brookins (center, in black) pictured with her four children, L-R, Roman, Jada, Hope and Drew, fled domestic violence and built her own home by watching YouTube tutorials +10
Cara Brookins (center, in black) pictured with her four children, L-R, Roman, Jada, Hope and Drew, fled domestic violence and built her own home by watching YouTube tutorials
When Cara Brookins escaped her 'controlling and violent' husband in 2008, she was not only broke, she and her family felt broken +10
When Cara Brookins escaped her 'controlling and violent' husband in 2008, she was not only broke, she and her family felt broken
'We could afford all the supplies so we just put it together ourselves,' she said.
'I didn't know yet how to frame a window or a door, how to snake pipes and wires through a wall or how to draw up blueprints and obtain permits. But I knew my kids, and I knew we needed this,' she wrote in her book, Rise, How a House Built a Family.
With no building experience, Brookins, 45, and her kids sat and watched hours and hours of YouTube tutorials to teach them how to construct everything.
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'With just a little bit at a time, we figured out how to lay a foundation block. There was a lot of asking people at Home Depot for help too.'
But in 2008, when they began their project, YouTube, was comparatively basic with fewer videos, while none of the family had smartphones.
Instead, Brookin says they would go home at night and watch videos together on 'how to frame a wall' and try to remember it the next day on site.
Despite their lack of training or experience, the house still managed to pass every city building code inspection. Although she said the inspectors were surprised when they found out who was doing the building work.
'I think they thought I was crazy,' Brookin joked. 'There wasn't a single person that thought this was a good idea aside from my kids.
'But to me, at the time, it felt like the only answer.
Brookin's eldest daughter Hope, who was just 17 when it began, said she initially felt intimated by the huge task ahead.
But she knew that she had to give her kids a new start if they ever had a chance of leaving the trauma behind them. And as she couldn't afford to buy a new home, they would have to roll up their sleeves and build it themselves (pictured is her son Roman helping build their home) +10
But she knew that she had to give her kids a new start if they ever had a chance of leaving the trauma behind them. And as she couldn't afford to buy a new home, they would have to roll up their sleeves and build it themselves (pictured is her son Roman helping build their home)
With no building experience, Brookins, 45, (pictured carrying breeze blocks for their house) and her kids sat and watched hours and hours of YouTube tutorials to teach them how to construct everything +10
With no building experience, Brookins, 45, (pictured carrying breeze blocks for their house) and her kids sat and watched hours and hours of YouTube tutorials to teach them how to construct everything
'How are we going to build a house,' she asked. 'We have no idea what we're doing.'
Yet that's just what they did.
The family began construction of Inkwell Manor in Hickory Drive, Bryant in Arkansas in 2008. Nine months of back breaking labor later, the stunning five-bedroom home was complete.
And in March 2009, Brookin and her children moved in.
The property, which also features a library, three-car garage and workshop, was purchased and built for $130,000. It also has a two-story tree house in the backyard.
The last time it was appraised, it was valued at half a million dollars.
'Building a house was the most difficult challenge we ever faced,' her mom added in her book, 'and so was rebuilding our family amid the trauma of abuse.'
In her unflinchingly honest book, Brookin described how she married her high school sweetheart aged 18.
Sadly the marriage didn't last and he joined the military, touring the world. Her next marriage was to a man named only as Adam, who she described as a 'genius' who had 'crossed over' to insanity.
The schizophrenia sufferer, who 'stalked and terrorized' the family for years, recently committed suicide.
After living in fear of her husband, Brookin divorced her second husband, only to marry another violent and controlling partner in Matt.
Brookins, pictured with her four children enjoying dinner at the table inside their hand-built home +10
Brookins, pictured with her four children enjoying dinner at the table inside their hand-built home
'Building a house was the most difficult challenge we ever faced,' said Brookin of her family +10
'Building a house was the most difficult challenge we ever faced,' said Brookin of her family
The Brookins pose outside their completed home Inkwell Manor in Hickory Drive, Bryant in Arkansas +10
The Brookins pose outside their completed home Inkwell Manor in Hickory Drive, Bryant in Arkansas
'He was controlling, manipulative and violent within a few months of our marriage,' she wrote.
Brookin recalled one violent attack where she had woken up to find her third husband choking her to the point of unconsciousness. In another, she claims he threw her against a wall in a fit of fury.
'My kids and I spent years walking on our tiptoes,' she said about the years she spent living in 'real terror.'
'We felt broken, shattered, we were all just in this survival mode. We had all gone so far into ourselves, that we weren't working as a team any more. It was very difficult for us to communicate, or even to talk to each other.'
The family still bear some scars of their traumatic past.
Brookin bought a gun which she keeps on her to deter any of her ex husbands from coming too close again.
Rise: How a House Built a Family is released on January 24 +10
Rise: How a House Built a Family is released on January 24
Her daughter Hope, she wrote, became angry, occasionally lashing with 'stinging words' while her son Drew into himself, while things kept 'boiling under the surface'.
Hope said the hardest part of living with her violent step-fathers was the feeling of helplessness at seeing her mother hurt.
But building a house together had made them all stronger.
'I've learned that I can do anything,' Hope said.
'The idea of building our own home was not born out of boredom but rose as the only possible way to rebuild my shattered family while we worked through the shock waves of domestic violence and mental illness,' Cara Brookin added.
'We were not only building our home, we were rebuilding our family unit, and rebuilding our selves, our self confidence.
'By the end, we were finishing each other's sentences.
'One board at a time, we built a house and in the end, we discovered a home.'
Brookin said that living in a home she and her loved ones built made it special.
'There is a real difference living in a place where you have touched every two-by-four,' she told the DailyMail.com. 'It's never far from your mind.
'We know where every single pipe is... it's a very vert neat feeling.'
But while the memories of building together would stay with them all forever, Brookin says that doesn't mean they will stay at that house.
'There's a sense of 'its only a house,' she explained. 'What's important, is that we are who we are today because of it.
'My children are who they are because of it, and their belief that they can do anything.
The family said that building Inkwell Manor had made them closer and stronger +10
The family said that building Inkwell Manor had made them closer and stronger
Brookins (pictured in her library at home) is also a motivational speaker and has published fiction novels including young adult, middle grade, and adult +10
Brookins (pictured in her library at home) is also a motivational speaker and has published fiction novels including young adult, middle grade, and adult
Brookins is also a motivational speaker and has published fiction novels including young adult, middle grade, and adult. She is also the host of the weekly Raise My Roof podcast through Macmillan Audio.
But her new book, Rise: How a House Built a Family which is released on January 24. is her first memoir.
Brookin said that initially she hadn't told anyone about the project, and certainly never planned to write about it.
'It was very private because we were very ashamed that we had got to this place,' she said. 'I didn't even tell my coworkers.
'But eventually it became something I had to do to let go of this shame.
She also hopes that her story could inspire other victims of domestic abuse to do something 'big' and life-changing to reclaim their identity and their confidence.
'I don't think for everyone its building a house, but for overcoming any kind of trauma it takes such a huge shift for how people see you and how they see themselves.
'Find your big thing... and whatever healing trip you take, take your family with you.'
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4114160/Incredible-story-Arkansas-mother-four-escaped-domestic-violence-built-home-watching-YouTube-tutorials.html#ixzz4fJi5eT00
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Brookins, Cara: RISE
Kirkus Reviews.
(Nov. 15, 2016):
COPYRIGHT 2016 Kirkus Media LLC
http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
Full Text:
Brookins, Cara RISE St. Martin's (Adult Nonfiction) $25.99 1, 24 ISBN: 978-1-250-09566-4
A memoir of a mother and her children building a house--and security--from the ground up.Throughout her uplifting book, Brookins, a computer
analyst, social media marketing expert, and author of middle-grade and young-adult novels (Gadget Geeks, 2015, etc.), consistently displays her
relentless optimism. The author begins with the birth of her first child when she was 19. A child of divorce and married at 18, Brookins was
confident that she could carry her child--soon to be children--away from the romantic problems that plagued her. These relationships were
hobbled by various factors, including schizophrenia, drugs, and, finally, abuse. Brookins successfully extricated herself from her partner's abuse,
but the trauma and anxiety of his return, along with financial hardship, left Brookins with no choice but to move on. Unsure of what to do next,
the author eventually hit on the idea of building a house with her children. "The idea of building our own home was not born out of boredom,"
she writes, "but rose as the only possible way to rebuild my shattered family while we worked through the shock waves of domestic violence and
mental illness. The dangers of our past were more difficult to leave behind than we ever imagined." Despite the seemingly insurmountable odds,
Brookins and her children waded into battle repeatedly, measuring, ordering, hammering, pouring concrete, and pulling apart finished work to put
it back together again only to find the one thing they had counted on going right had gone wrong. The author occasionally characterizes her
children in ways that make them seem like caricatures rather than individuals trying to work through the instability and uncertainty. However,
when she turns the focus on their work, Brookins draws a compelling picture of overcoming adversity and battling against problems from the past
that continued to threaten the new life they built.Not without its flaws but an inspiring memoir of absolute determination.
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
"Brookins, Cara: RISE." Kirkus Reviews, 15 Nov. 2016. General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?
p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA469865646&it=r&asid=b9ca5b73a6b1674059a77ffb5dcfc1db. Accessed 25 Apr.
2017.
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Rise
Carol Davala
BookPage.
(Feb. 2017): p26.
COPYRIGHT 2017 BookPage
http://bookpage.com/
Full Text:
RISE
By Cara Brookins
St. Martin's
$25.99, 320 pages
ISBN 9781250095664
Audio, eBook available
MEMOIR
[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]
Escaping the fallout of failed marriages and domestic abuse, on a weekend getaway Cara Brookins happened upon a stately home ravaged by
Mother Nature. Her walk through the home's crumbling remains became the impetus for a plan to build a new house for herself and her four
children. Beyond financial necessity and the empowering prospects of tackling such a grandiose do-it-yourself project, Brookins hoped the home
would help heal her fractured family.
Rise: How a House Built a Family takes readers along on a transformative journey. Brookins marks off the acre of land she has purchased with a
bag of self-rising flour, then secures a bank loan. With the help of YouTube videos and a learn-as-you-go attitude, Brookins and her kids lay
bricks, frame walls, integrate plumbing and build their dream. Brookins captures the process in rise and fall chapters: The rises highlight house
construction, while the falls offer heart-rending memories of trauma inflicted by a schizophrenic ex-husband.
While building a five-bedroom house may not be for everyone, all readers can find inspiration in Brookins' endeavor. In an age when few
adolescents would forgo extracurricular activities, endure exhausting manual labor and accept a tool belt for Christmas, her young crew pitches in
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for the greater good of the family.
Perhaps 15-year-old Drew says it best when he admonishes his sister, "You built your own damn house, you can do anything."
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
Davala, Carol. "Rise." BookPage, Feb. 2017, p. 26. General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?
p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA479076936&it=r&asid=56c5af0b85f720ca02a2a4ab5c581c1c. Accessed 25 Apr.
2017.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A479076936
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Rise: How a House Built a Family
Donna Chavez
Booklist.
113.5 (Nov. 1, 2016): p11.
COPYRIGHT 2016 American Library Association
http://www.ala.org/ala/aboutala/offices/publishing/booklist_publications/booklist/booklist.cfm
Full Text:
Rise: How a House Built a Family. By Cara Brookins. Jan. 2017.320p. illus. St. Martin's, $25.99 (9781250095664); e-book, $12.99
(9781250095671). 818.
Brookins' rousing memoir beautifully illustrates how one family can look apprehension dead in the eye and scoff at it. Armed with little more
than chutzpah and the Internet, this single mother mustered her only allies--her four children, including one toddler--to build a house from the
ground up. The catalyst? An abusive ex-husband who threatened to show up and terrorize them as long as he could locate them. The plan? To
build a home where he wouldn't be able to find them. Perhaps it was her experience with three very bad marriage choices, or maybe it was her
childhood in a dysfunctional family. Or it could be that the D in her DNA stood for determination. Wherever her strength of purpose originated, it
never failed her throughout the nearly yearlong construction process. Sure, her energy flagged occasionally. There's no way a writer can build a
house without a self-doubt or two. But for readers looking for inspiration to accomplish a daunting task, they need look no further than Brookins'
highly engaging and encouraging book.--Donna Chavez
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
Chavez, Donna. "Rise: How a House Built a Family." Booklist, 1 Nov. 2016, p. 11. General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?
p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA471142741&it=r&asid=e9aa9a2a5741ad1aa03b8617a76a982b. Accessed 25 Apr.
2017.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A471142741
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Rise: How a House Built a Family
Publishers Weekly.
263.32 (Aug. 8, 2016): p51.
COPYRIGHT 2016 PWxyz, LLC
http://www.publishersweekly.com/
Full Text:
Rise: How a House Built a Family
Cara Brookins. St. Martin's, $25.99 (320p) ISBN 978-1-250-09566-4
In this honest, tough memoir, Brooking documents how building a home for herself and her four children created a pathway out of domestic
abuse and into a new life. One of her husbands suffered from schizophrenia; her next husband drank heavily, used drugs, and, within a few
months of their wedding, began abusing the author. Brookings, a computer analyst based in Little Rock, Ark., calls herself an optimist, noting she
always "believed things would get better." Brookings, as well as her children, lived in fear even after the author's divorce. Selling the family
home was a financial necessity. During a family outing over Thanksgiving, Brookings spots her dream home. Though recently ravaged by a
tornado, the once "regal and very Southern home" plants a seed in her consciousness. "Why couldn't I build a house?" The narrative alternates
between describing the fear her children and the author lived with for years with the complications and rewards of building a home from the
ground up with no experience. Brookings finds land, obtains a loan, and sets out with the help of her four children to build their new home in nine
months. Brookings deftly narrates the extreme learning curve the family experienced during the construction process, while putting a family back
together again. Agent, Jessica Papin; Dystel & Goderich Literary. (Dec.)
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
"Rise: How a House Built a Family." Publishers Weekly, 8 Aug. 2016, p. 51+. General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?
p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA460900388&it=r&asid=516a6821de6e73974b0b19553b1f0bea. Accessed 25 Apr.
2017.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A460900388