Planning Your Move:

Free Kids Activity book & Road Atlas
Email moving@acerelocation.com, for a free Rand McNally
Kids Road Atlas. Include your name and address in the body
of the email and we will mail one to you. (for kids aged 3-12)

Download Buddy the Moving Van coloring page and a
Map of the United States to color & match state names.

Books to Ease the Stress of Moving for Kids

Moving can be exciting and fun, a chance to make a fresh
start. But for kids, moving to a new home is not always
easy. It can be stressful and even scary. To ease the
trials of moving, try out any of these delightful and colorful children's books about moving.

I'm Not Moving, Mama!
Nancy White Carlstrom, Simon & Schuster, 1999, 4-8 years
An encouraging book for the child who doesn't want to move. Little Mouse can't bear to leave his home. As she packs his things, the mouse child's mother points out something new they'll enjoy together in their new home. Gradually, Little Mouse realizes that the most important thing is that they'll be together, even in a new place. What's more, the family needs him to go with them in order to fully enjoy their new home.

Jorah's Journal Judith
Caseley, Greenwillow Books, 1997, 7+ years; grades 2-4
A story of the first days of a third-grader who moves from a city apartment to a house with a backyard. Usually Jorah loves rainy days, splashing in puddles, but not this one. She has to say goodbye. She hates moving and misses her old friends. At her new school, she is made fun of as the new girl in the class. When she gets a journal from her mother as a housewarming present, she writes every night about how awful she feels. The journal entries are placed at the end of the chapters in easy-to-read text. Finally, one of her new classmates comes to visit unexpectedly, and the tide begins to turn Jorah's way.

The Leaving Morning
Angela Johnson, Orchard Books, 1996, 3-6 years
A picture book about the bittersweet feelings that often arise on moving day. On the day of the move, much of the family's time is taken up in saying goodbye to neighbors, friends, and relatives. The child watches for the moving van, drinks a cup of hot chocolate at the deli across the way, and leaves lip marks on the window of the apartment before leaving for his new home.

Tooter Pepperday
Jerry Spinelli, Random House, 1995, 3-5 years
A zestful book about moving from suburbia to the farm. Tooter's family is moving to Aunt Sally's farm. But Tooter hates going so much that she handcuffs herself to the pipe beneath the bathroom sink. Why go to a place where there's no fast food or pizza delivery? At the farm Tooter finds nothing to like. I mean, really, what's to like about stepping in stinky goat poop? Then she's given an egg to tend till it hatches and gradually comes to enjoy living on the farm.

Henry and Mudge and Annie's Good Move
Cynthia Rylant, Simon & Schuster, 1998, grades 2-3
A soothing story of Annie's moving-day jitters. Annie worries about leaving friends and going to a new school-and whether her frilly dresses will be all right in the moving truck! Fortunately for her, she's moving next door to her cousin, Henry, and his dog companion, Mudge. Cousin Henry and Mudge help her through the changes.

Let's Move Together
Carol M. Schubeck, The Suitcase Press, 2000, 4-12 years
A delightful book about moving as a positive adventure. Tom the Turtle journeys with young readers through the stages of moving. Animals and insect characters show feelings of love and belonging. The book offers 46 color illustrations of animals, insects, and reptiles. Young readers will find that the simple exercises make the concepts come alive and reassurance that moving and change can be an adventure.

Best Friends Together Again
Aliki, HarperCollins Children's Books, 1995, 3-8 years
A comforting picture book for those having a hard time saying goodbye to old friends. The story is about the joyful reunion of best friends. Peter had to move away from his best friend, Robert. Now Peter returns for a visit. The two friends are hesitant at first, but are soon playing together like old times. When they go to the park to fly a paper airplane, all his old friends welcome Peter back. Though he must go away again, Peter feels reassured that he and Robert will always be friends and enjoys thinking about the many visits they'll have in the future

Gina
Bernard Waber, Houghton Mifflin, 1995, 4-8 years
Gina moves to an apartment in Queens. When she looks around for girls to play with her own age, she is dismayed to find that the apartment building and neighborhood is filled with boys. She's lonely. The boys don't want to play with her. What will she do? She decides to just join in. When the boys find out that Gina loves sports and can bat and throw, they totally accept her. The story is told in rhyming verse, with cartoon-like drawings.

Across the Blue Mountains
Emma Chichester Clark, Harcourt, 1993, 5-8 years
Mrs. Bilberry lives quite happily in a small yellow house with her pets. But she thinks she can be even happier if she moves to the other side of the mountains. Pushing her belongings in a cart, she sets off with her pets, loses her way, faces challenges on the road, and finally finds a house that is just right. Funnily enough, Mrs. Bilberry's new house and setting are much the same as where she lived before. Only the cat realizes that they have gone full circle to return home again.

Alexander, Who's Not (Do You Hear Me, I Mean It!) Going to Move
Judith Viorst, Simon & Schuster, 1998, grades 4-8
A book about the stress of moving house from the child's point of view. Alexander's upset because his family is moving to a place far away where his father has a new job. He doesn't want to leave his best friend or favorite babysitter. The book offers empathy for the full range of Alexander's feelings: anger, sorrow, and then at last a reluctant anticipation of the new, when his father offers to get him a dog, and a chance to make phone calls to old friends from his new home.
 

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