From Caldecott honoree LeUyen Pham, Outside, Inside is a moving picture book celebrating essential workers and the community coming together to face the challenges of the global COVID-19 pandemic.
Something strange happened on an unremarkable day just before the season changed.
Everybody who was outside . . .
. . . went inside.
Outside, it was quieter, wilder, and different. Inside, we laughed, we cried, and we grew.
We remembered to protect the ones we love and love the ones who protect us.
While the world changed outside, we became stronger on the inside and believed that someday soon spring would come again.---from the publisher
48 pages 978-1250798350 Ages 3-6
Keywords: coronavirus, community helpers, kindness, working together, helping others, 3 year old, 4 year old, 5 year old, 6 year old
"“It is a story about the innate kindness of individuals and the promise that it can signal for the future,” Pham told PW.- from Publisher's Weekly
********** Richie’s Picks: OUTSIDE, INSIDE by LeUyen Pham, Roaring Brook, January 2021, 48p., ISBN: 978-1-250-79835-0
“When I was a young girl
Well, I had me a cowboy
He weren’t much to look at
Just a free ramblin’ man
But that was a long time
And no matter how I tried
Those years just flow by
Like a broken down dam”
--”Angel From Montgomery,” written by John Prine, who died last year of COVID
How has the pandemic affected you? What has your life been like?
Bob was a retired attorney who once argued a couple of cases before the U.S. Supreme Court. He was my partner’s dad. He died from the COVID virus. There are families in every city and town, large and small, around the globe, who are also mourning the loss of a loved one. Furthermore, the pandemic has brought economic woes and caused widespread hunger. Schooling children has become especially challenging.
“Almost overnight, everything that had once seemed normal was no longer so, as one by one, to prevent spreading the virus, nearly everyone, everywhere, went inside and closed their doors.
It was difficult to process how quickly things changed. There was a sense, suddenly, that wherever we were in the world, we were cut off. Everyone stayed home, and neighbors next door felt millions of miles apart.”
-- from the Author’s Note.
It’s difficult to think of anything else that happened over my lifetime that, like the pandemic, has affected literally everyone in the world. COVID has done just that. Parents, teachers, and school psychologists all have their hands full, helping young people deal with their fears and mourning, in addition to helping students who have fallen behind.
The beautiful, engaging, and honest OUTSIDE, INSIDE is an important picture book about the once-in-a-century, worldwide disaster we’ve endured. This will be an excellent tool for helping kids get their feelings out about the impact of the past year.
Some adults have been required to work, in public, throughout the pandemic. The author dedicates this book to the first responders and essential workers who stood tall while so many of us were holed up at home.
“Everyone. Everywhere. All over the world.
Everyone just went inside, shut their doors, and waited.
Well, almost everyone.
Some people needed to be…
...where they needed to be
Outside, the sky was quiet,
but the wind still blew
and the birds kept singing.”
OUTSIDE, INSIDE concludes with a hopeful, optimistic tone, suggesting a metaphorical rebirth after a long, tough winter.
This is a book that will be of great comfort to a lot of kids. It will facilitate conversations with, among, and within young people.
Recommended by: Richie Partington, MLIS, California USA
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