Bluey, an Australian cartoon featuring an anthropomorphic puppy, is arguably the hottest TV show with the preschool set today. While kids love the series for its imaginative protagonist, many adults appreciate it for its thoughtful depiction of Chilli and Bandit, Bluey’s parents. Last year, however, the program made a rare misstep. An episode in which the family prepares for a big move ends with them deciding not to relocate, much to Bluey’s relief; many caregivers worried that this conclusion would give kids false hope about their own impending moves.

Granted, a montage of tail-wagging pooches rushing through their beloved home makes for a more feel-good finale than a scene in which the family earnestly discusses harsh realities. But for many kids, relocating is inevitable. Luckily, many picture-book authors are willing to help kids unpack the fraught emotions around moving.

Traci Sorell’s Being Home (Kokila, 2024) is that rare picture book where moving is cause for jubilation, not sadness. A Cherokee mother and child pack up their house in the city and drive to the reservation, where a beloved community is waiting—their new home is clearly either a place where they once lived or have frequently visited. Suffused in pink, Michaela Goade’s illustrations echo the tale’s celebratory tone as the little one enumerates the joys of relocating: “No more busy streets…No more crowded space.” Best of all, “No more faraway family.”

Beth Ferry and Tom Lichtenheld’s A Moving Story, illustrated by Tom Booth (Harper/HarperCollins, 2024), follows a pair of ursine brothers who love their work as movers. They approach each job with enthusiasm—even when that means reopening every single box after they realize that they may have accidentally packed away a pet turtle belonging to the Panda family’s young cub. Infused with gentle humor, the text and art set a soothing tone that will bolster youngsters fretting about an upcoming move.

“How can any other place feel like home?” This question, imbued with fear, uncertainty, and yearning, is at the heart of Julia Kuo’s Home Is a Wish (Roaring Brook Press, Feb. 2). A mother, grandmother, and child (who present as East Asian) travel by plane to a new city where everything seems strange…until it doesn’t. Making elegant use of color and visual metaphor, Kuo deftly charts the child’s physical and emotional journey, leaving readers with a thought-provoking message: “There are different homes for different times: a home from before, a home for now, even a home for later.”

The young brown-skinned narrator of Mick Jackson’s We’re Moving House (Candlewick, Feb. 18) has some delightfully off-base assumptions about the family’s move: namely, that the house will be coming, too. The excited child deflates when Mom points out that moving will mean living in a new home—one without familiar nooks and crannies. But one thing will remain the same: the family’s love. In Rashin Kheiriyeh’s charming, childlike illustrations, the protagonist’s wild flights of fancy—the house being placed atop a boat and airlifted by a helicopter—mingle pleasingly with quotidian details, making for a buoyant and wholly original take on the topic.

Mahnaz Dar is a young readers’ editor.