Outside in [Hardcover]

Karen Romano Young (Author)

Book Description

Age Level: 10 and up

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 her: 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 world: 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...

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Set in the '60s (like her humorous and original The Beetle and Me: A Love Story), Young's third novel may disappoint fans of that debut title. Despite some well-crafted moments, this tale of Cherie, who turns 13 in the course of the book, moves at a sluggish pace. The novel seems arbitrarily divided into four parts that take place in Connecticut in April, July, October and December of 1968. Several big events occur, and as a news carrier, Cherie learns of them first: riots in the aftermath of Martin Luther King Jr.'s death, the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy, the escalation of the Vietnam war and the disappearance of a girl her age in a neighboring town. But readers unfamiliar with historic events may not recognize their effect on the protagonist, and a prolonged preoccupation with the teen who disappeared mounts and ebbs sporadically. Similarly, her platonic relationship with neighbor and classmate Dave Asconti builds to the brink of romance then erupts occasionally in near violence, and although such erratic behavior seems concomitant with adolescence, it's often difficult to detect where Cherie stands on the relationship, even though she is narrating. Subplots involving her friendship with Joanie and the building of an elf house peter out. The most moving moments are anchored in details: Cherie teaching her younger sister to ride a bike; an awkward moment when Dave, whose family is moving, comes to say goodbye. These are the scenes that offer readers a sense of who Cherie really is. Ages 10-up.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From School Library Journal

Grade 6-9-It's 1968, and almost-13-year-old Ch‚rie Witkowski is struggling to understand her unpredictable world as changes occur in herself, her family, her neighborhood, and the world at large. She comes to dread her paper route, which thrusts at her daily headlines of Vietnam, assassinations, and the violence erupting in America. Neighboring families are torn by disagreements over the war and by marital problems. In Ch‚rie's own family, the anticipation of a new baby necessitates putting their house on the market. She feels that her world is out of control. When a 13-year-old girl in a neighboring town is reported missing and then found dead, Ch‚rie's growing fearfulness becomes a terrified paralysis as she takes to her bed, refusing to go out and face all of the bad news. The increasing awareness that emerging adulthood brings consumes her in a fear that seems overdone and nearly pathological. She has a brief epiphany about moving beyond it by doing simple things. Lots of subplots are woven into the first-person narrative: the blossoming of first love; the anger of a teenage boy; sibling rivalry; midlife crises among the adults. Young adeptly paints an authentic picture of the '60s, but Ch‚rie's fearful self-absorption may have limited appeal to young readers. A supplemental purchase where interest in the period is high.
Connie Tyrrell Burns, Mahoney Middle School, South Portland, ME
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 10 and up
  
• Hardcover: 192 pages
• Publisher: Greenwillow Books (April 30, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0688173632
• ISBN-13: 978-0688173630
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 2.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,221,535 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3.0 out of 5 stars Inside Out, April 23, 2004

A Kid's Review

This review is from: Outside In (Library Binding)

This book is ok because it tells about what had happened in 1968. The main character, Cherie serenely doesn't act as if she is thirteen. She gets afraid of the dark and still plays with dolls. No one I who is thirteen is like that. Perfect for girls ages nine and up.

This book is about a girl named Cherie and her family. Cherie is a normal girl, she rides bike, goes to school, and has friends. Then one day when she gets the job to deliver the newspaper and everything changes. The news gets worse and worse everyday. Then one day a girl just like Cherie goes missing and Cherie thinks that might happen to her. She cries more and more about it. On top of all this news, her mom is having a baby and her family is going to move.

Will the news ever get better? Where will her family move too? Will her new family member be a boy or a girl? reading "Outside In" will help.

1.0 out of 5 stars Horrible, no plot whatsoever, disapointing read, January 24, 2003

By 

Elizabeth Hermens "Elsa" (California) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Outside In (Library Binding)

This was possibly the worst book I've ever read, simply because there was no plot. It's 192 pages of nothing. The main character, a young girl named Cherie, seems to express few or no emotions throughout the book, mainly, it seems to be, because not much happens. All the characters seem two-dimensional, with no personality of their own. When her close neighbours move, she seems confused about her emotions relating to their son, and never really seems to resolve those either. At best, don't buy it, and at worst, check it out from a library.