Review Detail

Leaving 4B New

Kids Indie 10

She's Leaving Home

July 27, 2026

Overall rating

4.0

Plot

4.0

Characters

4.0

Writing Style

4.0

Illustrations/Photos (if applicable)

4.0

A little girl and her cat, Suki, are NOT happy to be leaving their cozy apartment. They love their neighbors, like Mrs. Monti and Mr. Jones, as well as all of the secret sports that they have in the flat. The parents, who are expecting a new baby, don't understand, and eagerly look for a new place to live. The little girl's hiding spot is removed, and her polka dots painted over in her room. She makes a brief attempt at scaring off prospective buyers (who clearly don't believe the sign that the apartment is haunted!), and soon the family has to move to 816. It's not the same; there is no climbing tree or neighbor dog, and the paint is a boring white. Still, it's nice to have a front porch, and when the girl attends a neighborhood gathering, she meets someone her age, and decides that while 816 isn't quite the same, it might not be all bad.

Good Points

The little girl has a lot of good reasons not to move, but her family doesn't agree. Her facial expressions, while true to life, are rather amusing, and I would definitely tell young readers to watch to see what Suki gets up to on the pages. The two are inseparable.

The color palette seems very 2020s, and there are other good details that sets this book in a very specific time. The realtor has a man bun, and the clothes on the people are casual and don't have a lot of patterns on them. The characters are diverse; the little girl's mother appears to be Black, while her father is Asian. It's good to see a number of ethnicities portrayed, especially since there are so many young readers who also have backgrounds with a variety of cultures.

It's nice to see that there is a happy ending, and the little girl (and Suki!) make their peace with having a new place to live. Families often move, and it's always hard to say goodbye to a beloved place. I was a child who would cry when my father would trim the bushes in front of the house, so I know that change is hard! This would be a great book to prepare children for a move to a new location, along with Regil's A New Home, Brown's The Moving Book, Jackson and Kheiriyeh's We're Moving House, and Griffin and Lechuga's Ten Beautiful Things.