WHY DID WE HAVE TO MOVE HERE?

Davies adds nothing to the literature of displacement: William has just relocated to a new neighborhood and he's agitated—he must share a room with his brother, he can't find his belongings, his new school is an alien nation. He is lonely without anyone to talk to, and his accent—considered strange by his new classmates—isn't much of an ice-breaker. It's even more wrenching that William is not particularly shy, but that his new classmates won't give him a chance. Mother Nature sends an assist: When the other kids get booted off the local pond, William knows of an alternative. It's a book that makes the solution to the trauma of moving one of divine intervention rather than children's own resources—no wonder so many of them rue moving day. (Picture book. 3-6)