The Roof Over Our Heads

Available now from Abrams/Amulet Books

A charming YA novel about a family who puts on an immersive, interactive play to save their historical home.

Finn lives in a family of theater lovers. His older brothers are both actors, and one of his moms is an actor and the other one is a director. They even live in an enormous historic mansion owned by the Beauregard, Minnesota's largest regional theater. Finn is desperate to be an actor, too, despite the fact that he can never seem to remember his lines. When a new artistic director threatens to sell the Jorgensen House and kick out his family from the only home he's ever known, his family puts on a show—an immersive 1890s experience unlike anything else out there. But will it be too much for his mom Lula, who is recovering from cancer? Will Finn connect with his crush and deal with his long-time rival, Jade? Will saving the house save Finn's acting career? Funny, warm, and full of Victorian hijinks, this is a novel for anyone looking for a place to belong.

Booklist ⭐️ review: “Expect nonstop action, rounded characters, secrets, schemes, and sweet affirmations of unconditional family love.”

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Praise for The Roof Over Our Heads

“The Roof Over Our Heads is a smart, funny, bighearted exploration of the roles people play… and the great delights that can come when we’re brave enough to veer off script. I loved it”

— Elana K. Arnold, author of National Book award finalist WHAT GIRLS ARE MADE OF

“A fun, joyful, and multi-genre romp—with murder mystery, treasure hunts, romance, anf historical fiction, to name a few—The Roof Over Our Heads is full of all the juicy backstage intrigue theater fans will love. Watching Finn Turner and his theatrical family scramble to produce an immersive Victorian experience on multiple floors of a historic mansion, with a cast of actors who add even more drama, is a hilarious, rollicking ride. Come for the hijinks, blown lines, absurd costumes, and Victorian history trivia—stay for Finn’s discovery of what truly matters when it comes to being a family. An uproarious, touching, and unforgettable delight.”

— Award-winning author Carrie Mesrobian

“Written with effortless charm and unexpected grit, The Roof Over Our Heads is a huge-hearted book about finding your passion and all the messiness, surprise, and feeling that comes with it. Delightfully funny and genuinely sweet, this story of family, theater, love, and history will make you smile for a long time after closing its pages.”

— Maxine kaplan, author of Wench and The Accidental Bad Girl

“The Roof Over Our Heads is like call-backs, opening night jitters, and the all-night cast party all rolled into one glorious shout of a book. Nicole Kronzer writes with hope and humor, and captures perfectly what it’s like to long to belong.”

— Laura Zimmermann, award-winning author of My Eyes Are Up Here

“Delightfully fun and filled with the kind of heart that exists backstage on opening night, The Roof Over Our Heads is a fight song for theatre kids - perfectly capturing the need to belong, while exploring what strings tie us to family. Readers will root for Finn in this beautifully crafted story that digs deep at how performative life can feel sometimes.”

— Dante Medema, author of The Truth Project and Message Not Found

“Expect nonstop action, rounded characters, secrets, schemes, and sweet affirmations of unconditional family love.”

— Booklist ⭐️ review

Press for The Roof Over our Heads

TRADE REVIEWS

Booklist (Starred Review ⭐️)

School Library Journal

Podcasts

"YA author Nicole Kronzer on balancing her twin passions: teaching and writing” an episode of Minnesota Minds: Cultivating Creativity

“Nicole Kronzer - Belonging” an episode of Authentic Obsessions

"Episode 8: Nicole Kronzer, YA Author and High School Teacher" an episode of Write Now with Scrivener

"Nicole Kronzer - YA Author" an episode of A Toast to Work

I’ve been obsessed…

with historical homes as long as I can remember. There’s something about standing in the same place people did more than one hundred years ago that makes me feel connected to humanity and part of history myself.

I teach high school Creative Writing. One of the projects I do with my advanced students involves historical fiction. Every other year, we either focus on the James J. Hill House or the Alexander Ramsey House, both in St. Paul, Minnesota. We research the family, what life was like for their servants, issues of class, gender, and race in the Nineteenth Century in Minnesota, language, clothing, food, and customs of the day, and then go on a field trip to the house. My students ask a million super smart questions thanks to all that research, and then we come home and write historical fiction!

So after years of assigning this project to students, I was dying to do it myself. I wanted to keep the story modern, however, so I decided Finn and his family would live at the house and be caretakers.

No one lives at the Hill or Ramsey Houses anymore, and both are owned and operated by the Minnesota Historical Society. I wanted the future of the house to be a little more tenuous than it would be if the Historical Society was running it, so while I used the floor plan of the Hill House, I jumped off with it into the world of fiction.

A theater owns The Jorgensen House. But there’s a new artistic director, and he can’t see the point. He’s ready to sell until Finn bursts into a meeting he hasn’t been invited to: why don’t they stage a play? One that moves the audience from room to room of the mansion. The proceeds can pay for the leaky roof and give his mom a chance to prove her idea for Victorian immersive experiences can work.

Soon, Finn finds himself living and working as a Victorian, preparing for the play, and hunting for the missing Jorgensen House treasure alongside his nemesis, Jade. What could go wrong?

I loved the research process. I visited the Hill House many many times and hung out with the kitchen docents in the Ramsey House for an evening to learn how the wood burning stove works. I even got a behind-the-scenes tour at the Minnesota Historical Society from a former student, Hannah Novillo!

Craig Johnson, who used to manage the Hill House, and is the author of the Minnesota Historical Society Press’s book, James J. Hill House, graciously shared his expertise with me and answered approximately three million questions over email. He even sent me a photo of a specific door knob I asked about!

Perhaps the most exciting part of researching was spending time with the Hill family’s papers at the Historical Society. I got to touch menus in Mrs. Hill’s hand, read letters their youngest, Walter, wrote home from boarding school, and see lists of Christmas and birthday presents that the family exchanged. I was brought to tears more than once, overwhelmed by how close I felt to them, even though they lived so long ago.