I went to 6 different schools from K-9. My parents, introverts both, didn’t teach me how to navigate the social cues at school. And I often had to learn the hard way how to deal with people until I finally figured it out – 30 years later.

In 8th grade – a period of my life to which I say, with great relief, thank goodness social media hadn’t been invented yet – I remember coming home and asking my mother when we’d be moving again.

“We’re not moving,” she replied. (Although, as it turned out, the answer was in a year.)

“Can I go to boarding school?” I asked.

“Why would you want to?” she asked and I didn’t reply.

The answer was, I couldn’t get far enough away from the feelings that were making me feel so uncomfortable.

The bright orange cat in I am Running Away Today faces the same feelings. Nothing feels right: the house feels cold and creaky; the yard has given up its secrets; old toys have lost their novelty.

And the white cat next door has moved away.

Orange cat sets out on a quest for a new house: not too big, not too small, not to tall, with trees to climb, and sun to sleep in, and the right blend of toys – and not too pink, because that would clash with the cat’s orange fur.

The cat finally settles on the house that had always been there – and now that a new cat has moved in next door, it has become the perfect house again.

A simple book, but it taps into the loss that I felt as a child but wasn’t able to express, and just wanted to run away from.

Desimini uses deep, saturated colors that cover the full page in the illustrations, the shapes sharply differentiated as if they were cut from paper and layered, dark and moody, always twilight.

I’m happy to have this book in my collection.