Lacey Recommends Moving Books for Girls

The November/December issue of New Moon Girls magazine is all about “your moving experience” — and we can be moved in so many ways! Below you’ll find books about moving to new places, moving your body, and of course, the experiences that move your emotions.

My Life as an Ice Cream Sandwich

Twelve-year-old Ebony-Grace has always lived with her grandfather, one of the first Black engineers to work for NASA. He introduced her to Star Wars and Star Trek and imaginary worlds she loves. Although she wants to retreat into her imagination when she moves to Harlem to live with her dad, she soon finds that 126th street has more in common with her favorite outer space adventures than she ever dreamed.

Get a Grip Vivy Cohen

Vivy is determined to be a baseball pitcher, even though her mom is worried about her being the only girl and the only autistic kid on the team. But soon Vivy is pitching, has a new best friend from the team, and is even getting letters with advice from her hero, major-league pitcher VJ Capello. Life is great until a big accident benches her, and she has to fight to stay on the team in this novel told in letters.

Chirp

Mia finds a lot to like when she moves to Vermont. Even though she’s recovering from a broken arm, she gets to spend more time with her grandma and make new friends. But she’s not sure if Gram’s insistence that someone is trying to destroy her cricket farm is real or a result of the stroke she suffered. As she investigates, she also must build up the courage to confront a secret buried at the bottom of one of her moving boxes.

The Other Half of Happy

When Quijana’s Guatemalan cousins move to town, her dad seems ashamed that she doesn’t know more about her family’s heritage. She feels “half American, half Guatemalan.” She’s also not sure whether her new friend Jayden is a buddy or a crush, or why her brother is becoming harder and harder to reach.

The Struggle to Be Strong: True Stories by Teens About Overcoming Tough Times

You could probably share your own stories about your most difficult or moving experiences. In this book, thirty teens share their stories about being bullied, about bullying others, about coming out as gay or transgender, about escaping into fantasy worlds, and more in their struggle to be strong.

More Moving Books for Girls

In Parked by Danielle Svetcov, Jeanne Ann has doubts about her mom’s decision to move to San Francisco and live in a van to chase her dream of becoming a chef — until she meets a new friend, Cal, who wants to help.

Summer feels pushed aside when her caretaker Lindy’s boyfriend moves in, making her wonder if they belong together and awakening her curiosity about where she came from before Lindy found her in A Swirl of Ocean by Melissa Sarno.

Jack and her gender-bending little brother, Birdie, try living with first one uncle and then another in search of family after their mother’s death in Birdie and Me by J.M.M. Nuanez.

In Pixie Pushes On by Tamara Bundy, Pixie struggles after a recent move to a farm until she bonds with a runt baby lamb in this historical fiction novel set in the 1940s.

Lyndie B. Hawkins’ grandma insists that “nice Southern girls” don’t talk about family secrets like what happened to her dad in Vietnam, but she starts to question that advice after a boy from the local juvenile detention center shares his experiences freely in The True History of Lyndie B. Hawkins by Gail Shepherd.

What about you? Have you read any of the books above? Do you have favorite moving books for girls? Share your suggestions and feedback in the comments below!