Outside Over There (Caldecott Collection)

A tale of Ida rescuing her sister from the goblin-babies. Quite a dark tale, with very little words. The appeal of the book is definitely in the art, which is Sendak's great realistic style. The story is lacking, though, making it a unsatisfying read.

Ida is watching her baby sister while her father is out to sea. While playing a song facing the opposite direction, her baby sister is stolen by goblins, and she must get her back.

Everyone loves "Where the Wild Things Are" but THIS is actually My favorite Sendak.

Ida is a big sister, and her mom is in the harbor and her dad is away at sea. She has to take care of her younger sister and while she was playing her horn to rock the baby to sleep the goblins came and pulled the baby out of the crib and left another one made of ice. So Ida leaves to go get her

Show More

sister and she finds lots of other babies, and she pulled out her horn and found her sister. Then she returned home with a letter from her dad.

I thought the story was a good one for big sisters. This story reminded me of when i was little and my sister was getting into everything i always thought I had to help her out with everything. I also liked the colors of the pictures, they were calming and more of a pale color.

I would use this in the classroom and have the children tell a story about siblings and how they help each other out. I would also have the children do a play of the story. I would even bring in a person who could play a real horn.

Show Less

This book has a fairytale feel as Ida searches for her baby sister who has been kidnapped by goblins. The story continues the surreal feel of Maurice Sendak's work. The illustrations reflect the beauty of artistry done during the Romantic Era. There is much to gaze upon while reading this tale!

There is a family of four and the father is away from home. The depressed mother is in the garden and Ida is the older sister of her baby sister. Incomplete

The most striking thing about this book for me was the illustrations. Sendak conveys a sense of fantasy and unease through his use of hyper realism and exaggerated proportions. Elements of the drawings reappear throughout the book in subtle ways... it is very clever.

The plot features a young girl,

Show More

Ida, who's baby sister gets abducted by goblins. She climbs out her window, "outside over there," and saves her sister from a goblin wedding. The story ends happily, with the sisters reunited, and messages of love from the parents.

I may use caution when exposing this book to young or emotionally sensitive children. The story-line and illustrations are pretty eerie, and could easily be frightening.

Show Less

an absolutely enchanting story! a young girl responsible for her baby sister while papa is at sea takes her eye off her baby sister for a second, the goblins creep in through the window and kidnap the baby leaving Ida no choice but to heroically search out and save her baby sister from a terrible

Show More

goblin wedding! as a teacher of 3/4 years old i have found this to be an absolute favourite with my group of ten children-they sit eyes wide, waiting for the next exciting part, they ask for this story over and over and i have downloaded fantastically eerie music to play in the background whilst i read it!!! an absolute favourite!

Show Less

As I was reading this, I was like, man, this is awfully similar to the movie The Labyrinth. But it was written well before and I don't remember that the Labyrinth was based on a book. But then I found out that, indeed, this book is the basis for that film. And more than that, the basis for the book

Show More

is Sendak's memories of hearing about the Lindberg Baby kidnapping when he was a child! Anyway, even without all that back story, it's a great book.

Show Less

Colorful book about a little girl whose father is away at sea and encourages her to care for the baby. She is negligent and has to rescue the baby from goblins.

Hauntingly beautiful illustrations fill page after page of this story driven by wonderful art work.

Poor Ida has a father who is away at sea; Poor Ida has a mother who is absent from parenting and sits in the arbor, with a glassy countenance and forlorn expression, little is in her consciousness but

Show More

sadness.

While Ida tries to quiet the baby by playing her wonder horn to rock the baby to sleep, she turns her back and goblins enter in the window, snatching baby to be a nasty goblins child bride.

Ida bravely journeys to save her sister.

Where is mama? She is in the arbor clueless of what is happening around her (my thoughts of frustration are coming through here!)

Mature, adult like in her behaviors, Ida rescues baby from the goblins and returns home to learn there is a letter from Papa, saying

"I'll be home one day
and my brave, bright little Ida
must watch the baby and her Mama
for her Papa, who loves her always."

Thank God the illustrations were incredibly beautiful because the story line was rife with the need to call social services.

Daddy is gone, leaving a small child in charge.

Please daddy, why not write a letter to mama telling her to wake up and be responsible.

Your children are in harms way!

Get home...now!

Show Less

The story was okay, but I thought the illustrations were lovely.

This is the story of a little girl who loses her baby sibling to goblins. I cannot tell what the medium for the illustrations are, perhaps color pencil, color pastel and oil. The girls mother is absent waiting for the return of the girls father, who is off at sea. Ida goes on a journey to recover

Show More

her little sister and after doing so is told by her mother that they've received a note from father. The father asks the daughter to look after Mama and the baby, be brave and he'll return one day. I really disliked the illustrations, the story, the plot, and the formatting of this book. It seemed to me chunky, extremely simple, and the art tried to verge on realism to the point where the characters just looked funny. It won a Caldecott Honor medal, which astounds me, but also show me that I am missing something. If I figure it out, I will come back and adjust this review. Use/Intent: Newborn siblings, to teach caring.

Show Less

This has to be one of my favorite of all of Sendak's work. How true the story is! It is about a father who is physically away, a mother who is emotionally absent, and a girl who has to take on the role of caretaker for her younger sibling and overall her family. She does not like the responsibility

Show More

and simply wants to play her horn. But, she ultimately takes responsibility for those she loves and outwits the goblins. How many children in the world have to the parents? How many children have to take responsibility for the family when all they want to do is be a child? How many children do not like the responsibility, but truly love their families and would do anything to help? In my opinion, this is Sendak's most honest and real story.

Show Less

Beautiful painterly illustrations. The story of a young girl coming to terms with her responsibility for her younger sister. Inspired the movie Labyrinth.

I really did not like this book. The first thing I did not like was I thought the writing style was very odd and a tad uncomfortable and unnatural to read. For example, a line in the story read, "Now Ida glad hugged baby tight." In my mind, that sentence does not flow at all. The pictures, although

Show More

very detailed, were very dark and gloomy and if I were a young child reading this or having it read to me, I would be frightened. The pictures are very spooky. It does possess a decent message though. It shows the reader the very relatable situation of older siblings feeling the burden of watching over the younger ones but if it actually came down to it, they would drop everything to help their younger siblings in need.

Show Less

Summary: Ida is a young girl that takes care of her little sister while her dad is away at sea, and her mother seems distracted in the arbor. Goblins come and steal her sister to be a goblin bride, and Ida leaves through her window to save her dear sister. The story ends Ida playing her wonder horn

Show More

so the goblins dance into the river, and her sister is rescued. When Ida returns home, there is a letter from her father telling her how strong she is and to continue to care for her mother and sister.
Personal Reaction: This story was very eerie. There is just an element of creepiness to it, almost mysterious. It is definitely an interesting story to read even for adults. I would not recommend this book to a child young child. Although the story never went into detail about her mother, I believe that the presumption can be made that the mother is not well. How she is not well is open to interpretation. It is my guess that her mother is mentally ill, and Ida as a young child herself cares for her infant sister. The “goblins” in the story appeared to be other babies, which was interesting as well. Ida shows determination in rescuing her sister, even in the face of darkness. I believe this is representative of Ida’s life.
Extension Ideas:
A discussion in the classroom could be created geared towards family and strength and how families stick together and help one another.
Students could create their own “wonder horn,” similar to the one Ida uses to sooth her sister, and then to drive the goblins away.

Show Less

I had mixed feelings about this book. I found this book to be realistic of the negativities of life, but also inappropriate for young readers. I personally got to do a project on Maurice Sendak, and I knew that this book was based on a traumatic experience Sendak had when he was little. The main

Show More

purpose of this story is to symbolically tell the frightening events of a kidnapping, with a lighter conclusion. This book is extremely dark despite the choice of light, pastel colored illustrations. For example, the book shows how the mother does not care for her two daughters, how the goblins have robes with darkened faces, and disturbing facial expressions. There were times however when I liked the figurative writing of the book. For example, “Now Ida glad hugged the baby tight and she followed the stream that curled like a path along the broad meadow.” Despite the dark content of the story, I did enjoy how gentle the colors of the illustrations were. Most of the illustrations were painted with pastel and light colors. However, in the end, I do not think I would ever want to read any child this story.

Show Less

I did not care too much for this book. The first reason is because of the plot. I find it odd that goblins, who are really babies, steal a baby so they can get married. The plot did not really hold my attention because it was odd and uninteresting. The second reason I did not like this plot is

Show More

because of the characters. Most of the characters were babies, and they were doing adult events, like getting married and kidnapping. When I found out that the goblins were really babies, I immediately lost interest, and did not take the book seriously. Although I did not like the book, I did enjoy the illustrations. I liked how the author drew each page to help guide the reader in the plot. The central message of the story is to expect the unexpected.

Show Less

I enjoyed Maurice Sendak’s story “Outside Over There” because of the descriptive language, and illustrations. Sendak describes the wedding scene that Ida comes across on her mission to save her baby sister from being a goblin’s bride. Sendak emphasizes “how those goblins hollered and

Show More

kicked and were just babies like her sister”. The illustrations in the story are very unique because they have a 19th century vibe and are darker images than usually found in children’s books. This is unusual for a modern children’s book, however the images greatly enhance the story because it helps the reader visualize what the characters looked like as well as helped them understand the emotions such as Ida’s sadness through the use of dark colors like gray. The overall message in this story is responsibility, and how important it is to pay attention to your surroundings. If Ida was properly watching her sister she would have seen the goblins and been able to stop them before they could kidnap the baby.

Show Less

I enjoyed the book, "Outside Over There," by Maurice Sendak, but there was one part I did not like. First, I thought the illustrations contributed to and enhanced the story line. For example, when the goblins kidnap Ida's baby sister, it allowed me to create a visual inside of my mind to see how

Show More

Maurice Sendak wanted the reader to envision the situation. Secondly, I liked the characters of the story. Even though Ida is young, she is courageous and strong. For instance, when her baby sister disappears and is replaced with ice, she decides to go "outside, over there" and steal her sister from the goblins. As Maurice Sendak says this sister relationship represents his relationship with his sister, it makes the story feel more real and makes Ida seem more brave. However, the story was a little confusing with some of the word choices. For example, Ida hears her sailor Papa's song, "If Ida backwards in the rain would only turn around again and catch those goblins with a tune shed spoil their kidnap honeymoon!" I did not understand why this was her sailor Papa's song or like how it was stated in the middle of the story without explanation. Lastly, the main idea of the story is to face the fears of reality.

Show Less

One day while Ida is playing her horn, goblins sneak into the house and replace her baby sister with a changeling made of ice. Ida must venture into "outside over there" to rescue her wee sibling from the fierce creatures.

This book has the feel of an old fairy tale, even though it is entirely the

Show More

creation of author/illustrator Sendak. Not being the hugest fan of fairy tales, I was equally not overwhelmed by this book initially. However, after a few reads, I already started to enjoy it more. Perhaps future re-reads will allow me to appreciate it even more so. Also, for those who do like traditional fairy tales, I could see this book going over quite well.

Show Less

This is one of the books they based the 1986 movie "Labyrinth" off of. I really like it, I got it as a christmas present from my brother. I like it way better than Where The Wild Things Are.

The story is a bit grim but the illustrations are wonderful. I liked the fairytale but I won’t be reading it to you g children.