I recently stumbled across Pamela Hickman’s 2009 picture book It’s Moving Day! and I’m glad I did.
This is simple picture book that does a good job of educating kids about the natural world, and does so in a focused, educational fashion. Hickman focuses on a single burrow near a single tree near a field. She guides readers through the circumstances that change with the seasons, and how different animals come and go, so that the burrow becomes home to different creatures over time. These creatures also move through different stages of their life cycles. Once a woodchuck moves out, a cottontail rabbit gives birth to “five tiny kits” in the burrow. Later, a salamander takes refuge over the winter, before heading to a nearby pool to lay eggs. A raccoon and her kits make their home there, and when they live, a number of milk snakes move in. When waves of snakes slither away, a chipmunk family moves in, then a skunk family, then a woodchuck.
Geraldo Valerio’s illustrations friendly and somewhat cartoonish (rather than realistic), but do give a sense of colors and how the different animals fit in this space.
There are some small oddities here. For example, there’s no reason given as to why both the rabbit mom and the skunk mom have five babies: I don’t know if this is arbitrary, or if this is the most common number of babies for these species.
These are minor, though, and overall, the book is both pleasant and useful. It stands alone, but could also be usefully paired with books like Who Nests Here? or Keep on Moving.
