By Audrey Penn
Chester Raccoon has to move out of the tree he grew up in, and his mother presses a kiss into his palm to carry along with him.
Someone has painted a mark on Chester Raccoon's tree, and Mrs. Raccoon knows what that means: the humans are going to cut it down, so the family has to find a new tree before they come. Chester doesn't want a new tree. He wants this one, with the friends who live nearby and the branches he can find in the dark. He argues the way a small child argues, and it doesn't change anything. So before they leave, he holds the bark and breathes it in and takes a piece of the tree with him. Then his mother opens his hand and kisses the middle of his palm, the way she has since the first book, and the kiss goes with him. He gets to the new tree scared. He meets another young raccoon. Little by little it starts to feel like home.
The first Kissing Hand is for the child heading into a classroom for a few hours. This one is a bigger ask, because Chester is moving and not coming back, and Audrey Penn doesn't pretend otherwise. He really does lose his tree. What he keeps is a comfort he can carry to any new tree, something he can feel in his own hand, which is why it works on a child this young. If your child already met Chester in the first book, they'll come to this one already trusting him.