View source for My New Home by Marta Altes

{{infobox2
|title=My New Home
|author=Marta Altes
|reviewer=Ruth Ng
|genre=For Sharing
|rating=4
|buy=Yes
|borrow=Yes
|isbn=9781447206507
|pages=32
|publisher=Macmillan Children's Books
|date=June 2014
|aznuk=1447206509
|aznus=1447206509
|cover=1447206509
|website=http://www.martaltes.com/
|summary=I needed this story when I was moving house a lot as a little girl.  Sweet and gentle, this introduces the idea of the good things that can happen when you move house.
}}
We moved house a lot when I was a child.  I became an accomplished letter writer in a desperate attempt to keep in touch with old friends.  I wish I had had a book like this one.  It's hard moving home as a child, and as much as grown ups can tell you it's exciting and wonderful and won't it be marvellous to have a new pink bedroom it actually leaves you feeling very lost and scared and alone.  This story introduces us to a little raccoon who has moved house and who is struggling a little bit with missing her old friends and making new ones.

There is a page in the book where little raccoon is hiding behind her mummy or daddy, on her way to her new school, staring at all the other little animals on their way to school.  When I opened this page I could absolutely identify with everything the raccoon is feeling and thinking.  All the other animals are staring at her.  Some are pulling faces.  I know that dreadful feeling so well, that awful wait to begin in a new class, in a new school, wondering if you'll ever make any new friends.  You'll be glad to hear that of course she does make some new friends and finds that she is happy in her new home!  Her dad tells her that when she least expects it she'll find new adventures, and that ''adventures make loneliness disappear'' which is a rather lovely way to look at things.

The illustrations are delightful throughout.  All of the animals are sweet, and the simple style compliments the simple, yet meaningful, text.  The colours are slightly muted, giving the book an autumnal sort of feel.  We enjoyed seeing what all the various animals are getting up to in the pictures.  My favourite is the juggling rabbit and the rather stunned fox watching him!

I really liked the acknowledgement that you don't just forget about the people you leave behind and there are two sweet pictures of the raccoon opening her mailbox and discovering a letter from an old friend.  As a child I loved the sound of post hitting the doormat, in case it meant news from people I loved and missed.  I still do love that sound, and a handwritten note beats an email every single time!  I applaud the author's suggestion that writing letters is a good way to keep in touch.  The whole book is deftly handled, and would certainly help as a story to share with older toddlers and key stage one children who are facing an upcoming house move to help reassure them that everything is going to be okay.

For more help with moving house you might also like to try [[The Red Boat by Hannah Cumming]] and [[My Happy Life by Rose Lagercrantz and Eva Eriksson]].  For the story of a family who have to move house, try [[The Invisible by Tom Percival]].

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