Review by hanlapham - Outside in

hopeful informative inspiring lighthearted reflective relaxing

4.75

Category: Caldecott

Title: Outside In

Author: Deborah Underwood

Illustrator: Cindy Derby

Date Published: April 14, 2020

Age Appropriateness:

I think this book would be best suited for a younger audience. There is a lot the students can do with this– reflecting, artwork, and writing prompts! It’s a very inquisitive book that has the potential to bring up lots of deep questions for students. Providing them with outlets like writing and drawing would be super beneficial!

Summary:

This story takes the reader through a journey of realizing and understanding just how important and impactful nature is for the people and animals who call it home. It talks about puffs of cotton and how they snuggle people, how trees used to stand tall and now we sit at them. The author really takes the reader through everything in nature and illustrates it in such a unique, beautiful way. At the end, the author sort of ends with an action statement for the readers. They encourage people to use the possibilities of the outdoors and play. To not feel embarrassed about using your imagination and to allow yourself to play and enjoy it.

Review:

I really loved the images and how they showed that the space around us is so much bigger than we could have ever imagined. That we really are just small things part of God’s greater plan. When the author talked about trees and how they used to stand tall and what we do with them now, the illustrator exemplified this by having the young girl sit in a wooden chair when trees reflected off of them. I think this was such a cool and unique way to show students the purpose of the story. The author used a really great adjective to describe how people feel the outdoors in everything we do. This would be a great story to pull vocabulary words from. I think this story would be a great lesson in private school about what God has done though His people to craft what we have now. On the other hand, it would be a great way to stir questions and offer a deeper understanding of the world for a public school. This story brings up hard, interesting topics without specifically using biblical words. I think sometimes people can forget how special nature is, and so for adults this was a good reminder to stop taking the earth for granted.