"The leaving happened on a soupy, misty morning..." begins the account by a young African-American boy on the day the moving van came to help his family move from a city apartment to a new home. Although his narration focuses on the neighborhood he's leaving and the difficulty of leaving friends and family ("We said good-bye to the cousins all day long."), Johnson's text carries a subtle undercurrent of excitement and anticipation. The boy's changing moods are aptly depicted in Soman's watercolor illustrations, which also realistically show the older sister looking wistful and tentative while the parents seem to glow with happiness and confidence. (Ages 3-6)