Moving Day

The traumas and trials of moving away are poignantly expressed in new poems from a respected writer. Fletch's new Diamondback mountain bike and his brother's new hockey outfit are unexpected gifts from Dad. When Dad announces, "We're going to move to Ohio," Fletch's heart drops to his stomach. Leaving means selling the house, abandoning his best friends,and living next to Lake Erie. . . . Hey, didn't that lake catch on fire? Ralph Feltcher's poems evoke what's hard about moving away as well as what makes moving day, well, maybe, okay.

Those six poisonous words suddenly turn the world of twelve-year-old Fletch upside down. In two weeks, he will say good-bye to his friends and leave behind that pretty girl with the dark dark eyes. Longing fills the time before moving day as Fletch yearns to keep life just the way it is. Even defrosting the freezer is hard; a "thick white layer of sadness" covers everything. Hetch worries that when he moves he Won't be from anywhere. He'll be "just a tumbleweed blowing across a dusty road." Ralph Fletcher's heartfelt, autobiographical poems are beautifully illustrated by Jennifer Emery and speak to anyone who has ever moved far away.

About the Author:
Ralph Fletcher works with teachers and children in schools across the United States

School Library Journal

Gr 3-6-In a series of free-verse poems, 12-year-old Fletch talks about his family's move from Massachusetts to Ohio. While many books deal with the experience of being a new kid in town, few focus in such depth on what was left behind. To be inside his skin, through the sadness of packing, giving things away, doing things one last time, and realizing that other family members are hurting is no small thing. When the movers go, "The house feels way too big./Hard to believe that we had/enough stuff, enough love,/to fill all these empty rooms." Like shards of glass, Emery's pencil drawings with their watercolor washes mirror the loss and longing in these poems. Fletcher's carefully chosen images-the new house feeling like a stiff new sweatshirt, a glass doorknob reflecting rainbows of light, and two leaves from the old yard mingling in the new leaves-are all right on target.-Mary Jean Smith, Southside Elementary School, Lebanon, TN Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

Ralph works with teachers and children in schools across the United States, both as an author and a creative writing consultant. He has written several poetry collections, including I Am Wings. Ralph lives in Lee, New Hampshire.

Jennifer Emery's illustrations have appeared in many educational publications and magazines for children. She is the illustrator of six other Boyds Mills Press books, most recently the picture book Animal Alphabed and Step-by-Step Crafts for Summer. Jennifer lives in Minneapolis, Minnesota.