Mark Siegel’s Moving House is a picture book about a house that decides to keep its family from moving away by aggressively lobbying the children. The night before Joey and Chloe’s family are to leave their house at Number Seven Carriage Street in Foggytown, they reminisce about all the things they love about their dear old home. The house stirs itself, stretches its legs, sprouts arms, and carries the kids up to a hilltop to show them that life in Foggytown needn’t be so foggy. The kids, the house, the other buildings and the streetlamps conspire together to rescue Foggytown from its fog, and they move the whole place up to the top of a hill, and the house and the family are saved.
You may know Siegel’s work from his wonderful Sailor Twain comics, and while there are some illustrations in Moving House that are very Twain-y, much of this is more straightforward, character-driven, kid-friendly illos (the house sauntering out of town with the kids in its hand is especially sweet). The writing is funny and charming, and the story is just weird enough, with a very satisfying and sentimental conclusion. It’s a lot of fun to read aloud, and it’s a great way to spark conversations about all the places in your home that are special to you and your kid(s).
