Outside
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- $10.99
Publisher Description
From three-time Newbery Honor winner Jennifer L. Holm, a chilling but heartfelt story of a girl being raised in a compound who doesn't understand how isolated and unusual her life is... until she must encounter the outside world.
Whatever you do, don't leave home.
Razzi has always been told: Don't go Outside. It isn't safe. There are people and creatures out there that will harm you. The walls of the Refuge will protect you from them.
Razzi's friend Ollie was curious about Outside... and it led to his death. So Razzi is trying to be on her best behavior. She is the oldest kid left, the one the younger kids look up to. She has to follow the rules.
But Outside has a way of getting in, and Razzi, guided by a dog she has a strangely close connection with, wonders what it’s like to run free beyond the walls.
If she steps away from everything she's ever known... what will she find?
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In this riveting survival novel by Newbery Honoree Holm, a white-cued 12-year-old ventures for the first time beyond her secluded doorstep. A decade before this book's start, "some stupid country decided to start a war" via venomous missile, prompting Razzi's parents to create an isolated compound called the Refuge. As the oldest, Razzi is expected to set an example for other kids, a responsibility she takes seriously. But the death of a peer, Ollie, a few months prior weighs heavy on her mind: desperate to see outside the Refuge's walls, Ollie scaled and fell from the building's roof. When a doctor's visit reveals that Razzi needs a heart transplant, she receives the heart of a greyhound named Wind, and she soon feels that the surgery has changed her, prompting her to forgo her typical rule-abiding tendencies. Upon stowing away on a Refuge truck bound for a supply run, she makes a discovery that changes everything. Fascinating, intimately detailed characterization and worldbuilding makes everything from Razzi's motivations and reactions to the children's carefree games to the community's fear of the outside world feel palpable across a white-knuckled adventure about autonomy and cultivating one's own inner strength. Ages 9–12.
