“I love my family dearly, but there is this amazing piece of land that needs somebody to care enough to keep it safe from development.”
Ella Everly
Touching Grass can be read as a sequel to Cardboard Dollhouses, as it continues the events from that story. This time around Ella Everly is our narrator.
When Ella comes home from college with her degree in Environmental Studies, she finds her family in turmoil. Her uncle wants to sell his vast holdings of land, and move to the hills of Tennessee. A mysterious outfit called Red Hummingbird Land Management has already purchased Old Man Parson’s farm, and the Gifford parcel. Add the Everly land to all that, and they could build a subdivision that would forever change the character of Grapefruit Grove.
There’s more. There’s a spring on Everly land that drains into a marshy area that was never suitable for growing citrus. The Everlys left it alone, and it has become a favorite home for wading birds. Ella, along with her friends Morgan, Natalie, Alyssa, Minh, Nia and Kim are determined to stop this land from ever becoming developed. They are joined in their efforts by Cherry Clark and Destiny Marsh.