This way up by Kylie Dunstan

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Windy Hollow Books, 2013. ISBN 9781922081223.
(Age: 5+) Picture book, Moving home. Moving can be a tricky issue in some families, and those adults wrapped up in the concerns, may have little time for a younger child feeling left out. This charming picture book deals with a young girl moving house, returning home after some absence. She is encouraged to sort out her cardboard boxes, but finds it overwhelming. The surroundings are similar and bring back fond memories, but everything seems so much smaller. Mum seems to whizz around the house with piles of stuff, sometimes dropping some in Grace's room with an encouraging 'why don't you find a home for all of this stuff?' But Grace finds it hard to work out which was important and prefers to hide in one of the empty cardboard boxes in her room. That is until Grandma arrives. Then Grace knows what is most important, and when other families arrive the next day for a celebration, she feels at last that she is home.
This is a warm story about one child feeling sad at leaving and yet wanting to be part of her old house. Her mother is encouraging and supportive as she too must find a space for all the things in boxes. When familiar people arrive, it is only then that everyone feels settled.
Fran Knight

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