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Ramentales
Invented example: Lina in "Moving House", the cover

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BooksPencil and watercolourAges 3–8Coming soon

Moving House

A goodbye walk in the old house, a hello walk in the new one, and a little snail who carries home wherever he goes.

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Helps with

Big feelings

Moving house: saying a proper goodbye, settling into a new home and making new friends.

The tool your child practises in the story

A goodbye walk, a hello walk

A few days before the move, walk slowly with your child through the old home and garden. At each place they love, stop, say thank you and goodbye out loud, and let them keep one tiny thing (a leaf, a pebble, a drawing, a photo) for a decorated box. In the new home, open the box first and find a special spot for each thing. Then go on a hello walk: greet every room, the garden and the street, and look for one new thing to like in each.

Page 26: For grown-ups. Every book ends with a page for you: what the story is about, how to talk about it, questions to ask and how to use the tool.

For grown-ups

What this story is about

Moving house is one of the biggest changes in a child's life: the room, the garden, the friend next door, the way the stairs creak, all of it goes at once. In this story your child feels the sadness of leaving and the strangeness of a new place. A little snail called Pim teaches a small ritual: a goodbye walk to thank the old home and keep one tiny thing from each special place, and later a hello walk to meet the new one. The missing does not vanish, but your child learns that home can be carried, and found again.

Three ways to talk about it

  • Name the feeling and make room for it: "It's all right to be sad about leaving. Missing the old house means you loved it."
  • Before the move, do a goodbye walk together and let your child choose a few small keepsakes for a box of their own.
  • On the first day in the new home, unpack your child's room and their box first, and take a slow hello walk through every room and the street.

Three questions to ask

  • What did the child in the story miss most about the old house? What would you miss?
  • What went into the home box, and why was each thing special?
  • What did the child say hello to on the hello walk? What would you say hello to first?

Practise the tool together: A goodbye walk, a hello walk

A few days before the move, walk slowly with your child through the old home and garden. At each place they love, stop, say thank you and goodbye out loud, and let them keep one tiny thing (a leaf, a pebble, a drawing, a photo) for a decorated box. In the new home, open the box first and find a special spot for each thing. Then go on a hello walk: greet every room, the garden and the street, and look for one new thing to like in each.

If, many weeks after the move, your child still seems very sad, withdrawn or anxious, sleeps poorly or has frequent tummy aches, it is worth talking to your paediatrician or a child psychologist.

Look inside

Twelve illustrated spreads: the picture on the left, the story on the right. These sample pages show an invented child called Lina.

  • Invented example: Lina in "Moving House", page 3

    Pim told Lina the secret. "First, a goodbye walk. You visit every place you love, you say thank you and goodbye, and you keep one tiny thing for your home box. Then, in the new house, a hello walk." So Lina found an old shoebox and painted it sky-blue, with a yellow house and little stars on the lid. "A goodbye walk, a hello walk," whispered Lina. Pim nodded so hard his eyes wobbled.

  • "Hello, round window," said Lina. "You look like a ship." "Hello, bumpy stairs." Boing! went the bottom step, and Lina giggled. "Hello, little garden. Hello, crooked fence." Pim rode along on Lina's shoulder, waving an eye stalk at everything. With every hello, the house felt a little less strange, as if it was waking up to say hello back.

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The styles it will be drawn in