A young girl and her parents move from the city for her father’s health. They become pioneers in a way and are excited for their new lives. They have neighbors who the daughter befriends. She shows the youngest son how to wash dishes with sand. He tells her “One day you’ll be a beaut.”
She only thinks men with big teeth are attractive. There were small sketches through the book.
I’m not sure, but I wonder if this could be Virginia Sorensen’s ‘Miracles on Maple Hill’. Certainly this is a story, from the daughter’s point of view, about a family that move to the countryside for the sake of the father’s health, and live a simpler, somewhat pioneering-type life. I don’t remember the details about the dishwashing with sand, or the men with big teeth; but it’s many years since I read the book.
Thanks for the suggestion but I read through the synopsis and this is similar but not the right book.