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Overview
Lisa Brown, creator of the hugely popular The Airport Book and The Hospital Book, breaks down the big prospect of moving to a new home in this engaging picture book primer. Moving can be sad and scary--but it doesn't have to be. The kids in this book have done it many times before, as the older brother reminds his sister. They reflect on favorite memories from each of their past homes, and the boy talks her (and the reader) through all the steps to expect, from taping up boxes to riding in the car behind the moving truck. Starring the same multiracial family from The Airport Book and The Hospital Book, and featuring plenty of "easter eggs" that will delight young readers, the book chronicles three distinct moves--from a small, overcrowded apartment in a rickety house to a proper urban apartment building to a house where there's room for grandpa. With clear, concise text and detail-rich illustrations, The Moving Book is the perfect resource for any family preparing for a move and managing anxiety about the process. Fans of Lisa Brown's critically acclaimed past titles will instantly recognize their favorite tour guides to sort-of-scary new things. A Horn Book Fanfare Title
A Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selection
One of Chicago Public Library's Best of the Best Books
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Details
- ISBN-13: 9780823457182
- ISBN-10: 0823457184
- Publisher: Neal Porter Books
- Publish Date: July 2025
- Dimensions: 11.1 x 9 x 0.5 inches
- Shipping Weight: 0.95 pounds
- Page Count: 40
- Reading Level: Ages 4-8
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In The Moving Book, Lisa Brown captures the bittersweet, often funny emotional terrain of moving through the eyes of children reflecting on a series of their past homes. The book opens just after a family has moved yet again. The narrator, an older brother, walks his younger sister through their shared history—house by house, apartment by apartment—recalling the people, places and feelings attached to each. The sister never knew the family’s first home, a small, cluttered apartment where Grandpa lived downstairs and space was tight. In their next home, after the sister was born, there were lots of stairs and little room to play.
Brown’s storytelling sparkles with humor, especially through the voice of an unreliable narrator whose memories often contradict what the illustrations reveal. The slide at a nearby playground is remembered with fondness, yet the illustrations show the brother too scared to go down. A trip to the natural history museum includes the claim that the younger sister was “so afraid” of the dinosaurs, but in reality she stands boldly in front of the exhibit while the narrator clings to one of their parents.
The family moves again and again, from a building with three elevators to a place near other grandparents, each move including small delights (indoor trick-or-treating, choosing a room) and emotional costs. Brown’s crisp, expressive illustrations, often organized into tightly composed vignettes, invite close inspection; fans of Brown's The Airport Book and The Hospital Book will recognize the same blend of emotional honesty and practical observation of those previous books. There’s a deep sense of serendipitous detail in this multiracial family’s journey: glimpses of cozy, crowded spaces convey a life in motion, full of both disruption and continuity. It’s also refreshing to see lived-in spaces like cramped apartments and city high-rises, settings rarely depicted in a genre often dominated by suburban homes.
The ending strikes a hopeful note: This new home has a little garden with a lemon tree. Beneath the bustle and transitions, The Moving Book is a tender and funny meditation on memory, sibling dynamics and the meaning of home.
In The Moving Book, Lisa Brown captures the bittersweet, often funny emotional terrain of moving through the eyes of children reflecting on a series of their past homes. The book opens just after a family has moved yet again. The narrator, an older brother, walks his younger sister through their shared history—house by house, apartment by apartment—recalling the people, places and feelings attached to each. The sister never knew the family’s first home, a small, cluttered apartment where Grandpa lived downstairs and space was tight. In their next home, after the sister was born, there were lots of stairs and little room to play.
Brown’s storytelling sparkles with humor, especially through the voice of an unreliable narrator whose memories often contradict what the illustrations reveal. The slide at a nearby playground is remembered with fondness, yet the illustrations show the brother too scared to go down. A trip to the natural history museum includes the claim that the younger sister was “so afraid” of the dinosaurs, but in reality she stands boldly in front of the exhibit while the narrator clings to one of their parents.
The family moves again and again, from a building with three elevators to a place near other grandparents, each move including small delights (indoor trick-or-treating, choosing a room) and emotional costs. Brown’s crisp, expressive illustrations, often organized into tightly composed vignettes, invite close inspection; fans of Brown's The Airport Book and The Hospital Book will recognize the same blend of emotional honesty and practical observation of those previous books. There’s a deep sense of serendipitous detail in this multiracial family’s journey: glimpses of cozy, crowded spaces convey a life in motion, full of both disruption and continuity. It’s also refreshing to see lived-in spaces like cramped apartments and city high-rises, settings rarely depicted in a genre often dominated by suburban homes.
The ending strikes a hopeful note: This new home has a little garden with a lemon tree. Beneath the bustle and transitions, The Moving Book is a tender and funny meditation on memory, sibling dynamics and the meaning of home.