Outside In

by Karen Romano Young

Chérie Witkowski is twelve, and she doesn't want to turn thirteen this year. This is the year, 1968, that everything -- absolutely everything-seems to be changing. At home her parents are expecting a new baby, her mother is fixing up the house so they can sell it and move who-knows-where, and everyone is starting to tease her about the boy next door. Meanwhile her newspaper route brings the changes of the outside world crashing in on the Vietnam War, the assassinations of Martin Luther King, Jr., and Senator Robert F. Kennedy, and the disappearance of a girl from a few towns away -- a girl who more braids like Chérie, who was about the same age as Chérie, who could have been Chérie. Suddenly Chérie is scared; nothing seems safe and simple anymore. She longs for easier fears-for playing hide-and-seek in the dark, skipping school, daredevil bike tricks..She builds her own inside an elaborate elf house under a bush, complete with staircases, elevators, and carefully designed furniture. But you can't keep the outside world away forever, especially when you're delivering the daily paper. And maybe Chérie has the strength to deal with it after all, and even to change some of the bad to good...

Genres: Young Adult

192 pages, Library Binding

First published January 1, 2001

About the author

Karen Romano Young is the author of young adult novels as well as nonfiction books and magazine articles. Although Small Worlds: Maps and Mapmaking is her first book for Scholastic, she has contributed to Scholastic magazines for the past twenty years. Her other credits include Cricket, National Geographic World, and The Guinness Book of World Records.

Member: Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators, Authors Guild, National Marine Educators Association.

Honors Awards: Smithsonian Best Book Award, and Oppenheimer Toy Portfolio Gold Medal, both 2002, both for Small Worlds: Maps and Mapmaking.

Reviews

[Janet · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really liked 'Outside In' by Karen Romano Young. I wasn't so sure about that in the beginning as it took a bit to get into the main character's head. But once I found 'that space' it was an amazing read from there. Set in the 60's, 'Outside In' shows the world through the eyes of almost 13 year old Cherie Witkowski. Cherie learns more about the world, good and bad, than she ever intended when she takes over a friend's paper route. Vietnam, Martin Luther King Jr.'s assassination, Robert Kennedy's assassination, the disappearance of a 13 year old girl from a local community, Apollo 10. As she tries to figure out how the news affects her world she is also facing changes at home and in her community. Losing her best friend, Dave, to the other boys and gaining a new baby in her own home. I think Young did an amazing job of taking 'preteen angst' to a different level than most young adult fiction I've read. Set during a rich time of historical significance that changed so much about the way American's saw themselves and the world, Cherie also faces her own changes from child to teenager. Everything she encountered in her home, her neighborhood, and the headlines she delivered changed her perspective of how she saw herself and those around her.

I truly enjoyed the depth of this story that I believe any adult reader can take something away from it. It's refreshing to see a young adult novel that does not pander to the younger reader but instead brings the reader to a new appreciation of society (and themselves) in terms anyone can understand.

Originally posted at https://fizzypopcollection.blogspot.c....

[Beth · Rating 3 out of 5]

Review: https://hiplibrariansbookblog.com/200...

[A.C.E. Bauer]

A book that captures a lot of what it was like to be 13 in the late 60s.