Gabi Makes Room is a story about a family.

An old friend of Gabi’s mum’s, Sylvia, is coming to stay for a week. She’s a larger-than-life character who Gabi’s mum grew up with, and then Sylvia moved to New York as an adult. (She runs a concept store in New York.)

Gabi has to give up her bedroom for Sylvia, and she has to share with Coco, her sweet but slightly annoying little sister.

Sylvia is loud, brash, and hasn’t spent a lot of time with children. Initially, Gabi finds her really difficult. She’s quite rude, outspoken, and disrupts the family routine. But gradually Gabi and Sylvia come to understand each other and realise that maybe they have more in common than they think.

Gabi Makes Room explores ideas about empathy, and understanding that people are complicated, and more complicated than one always assumes at the start.

It’s about making room for another person, both physically and emotionally.