This small, illustrated children’s book features a group of kids who build various things out of a pile of wood and some nails, starting, I think, with a fort. For some reason they keep tearing down and rebuilding their constructions; at one point they have a ship with a flag on the mast. Pre-1986.
Could it be We Were Tired of Living in a House (1969) by the late Liesel Moak Skorpen? One edition has illustrations by Doris Burn.
We had a book that sounded similar that I’m looking for myself. Ours was from the late 60s possibly early 70s and was the size of a Rand McNally Junior Elf book. It had illustrations typical of that style of book – brightish colours with very mid century American looking kids. It had a green cover and from memory and I distinctly remember them building a boat I think with a jolly roger flag. It is not Andrew Henry’s Meadow as the illustrations were full colour.
So I found my book – the description is
“Matt and Jerry decide to take some boards and nails and build a fort to play in. But one day a windstorm blew it down and for a while they were upset, but then they decided to make a new item” and the book is The Great Fort by Nancy Garber, illustrated by Kelly Oechsli and published by Whitman in the Tell-a-Tale series. keywords on another site include “wooden boat” and flag if that helps
Melissa! That’s the one! I’m so excited I might be crying a little bit. Thank you so much!
Another book to look at is Christina Katerina & the Box by Patricia Lee Gauch. It’s the same idea, only it’s a cardboard box instead of wood/nails. But it definitely has the fort and the ship in it.