A Story for That

Moving is enormous when you are three. The bed goes. The room goes. The house that has always been home goes. And nobody has explained where any of it is going.

“Everything that matters comes with us.”

What's inside

The whole move, in the order it really happens: the announcement at breakfast, the boxes, helping to pack, the empty room, waving goodbye, the enormous truck, the car journey, the first sight of the new house, and the first night in a bed that is somehow still theirs.

A worn teddy bear comes along on every single page.

It works wherever you are going

Most picture books about moving quietly assume you're going across town. They promise the child they'll still see their old friends, that the old life carries on nearby. For families moving further, that promise doesn't just fail to help — it makes the goodbye harder.

New House, Same Bear names no town and assumes no distance. It makes one promise, and it's the only one that's true at any distance: the people and the things that matter most are coming with you. The bear. The toy car. Mum's laugh. Dad's stories. All of which travel three streets or three thousand miles.

Written short, on purpose

Twenty-four story pages. Eight to fifteen words each. Told in the first person by the child — not by a cat, a pig or a dinosaur. Gentle, warm illustrations in a quiet Scandinavian style.

Small children need to hear a book about something frightening many times, not once. That only works if it's short enough to read again.

Also inside

• A page of notes for grown-ups — what to say, when to say it, what to pack in the first-night box, and when to ask for more help
• A “things to say goodbye to” page, to walk around and read out loud together
• A “draw your new room” page