Good morning, book friends. Today I wanted to share a new release from one of my favorite independent publishers, Flying Eye Books. They graciously sent me a digital review copy of Out, Out, Away from Here by Rachel Woodworth and illustrated by Sang Miao, and it is a captivating, colorful exploration about processing big emotions as a child.
The fiery-haired narrator begins by admitting some days she feels mad, some days sad, and some days smiling-ear-to-ear glad. Some days she even feels all of those emotions in one day! We walk through how quiet and noisy, good and bad days each look in her family and make her feel.
Then in one striking two page spread we see a glimpse of a “mad sad noisy day” that makes her feel small. A silhouette of arguing parents towers over her crying baby brother on the floor, and in midst of this conflict we see her fleeing the room. She says, on these days, “I like to go out, out, away from here/ … into the wild of my imagination.”
Miao’s gorgeous watercolor illustrations really shine in the next pages, as beautiful imagined landscapes fill each page with adventure. Surreal flying fish in the sky, mysterious tree faces, exotic forest fauna and animals inhabit the narrator’s imagined escape.
The narrator imagines herself bigger than the tallest trees, and remembers the mountains. “Bigger, taller, further up, up, up… / I see mountains. They are mountains for climbing and conquering. / and I do.” Atop a tall mountain, she imagines herself conquering her troubles – mountains of homework, messy rooms, even boiled carrots for dinner.
In the solace of her imagination, she is able to process her overwhelming feelings, and find enough space from her outside conflict to remember that, “Feeling small or mad sad noisy is not so awful after all.” With a smile on her face, she returns home to a happy family gathered for dinner in the kitchen.
What I loved about this book is its emotional intelligence. If we are honest, even as parents who strive not to argue or fight in front of our kids, sometimes our kids still easily pick up on stress or conflict in our homes that they don’t yet have a framework for understanding. How we teach them to manage their emotions and process the conflict is so important, and I loved that this book used the imagination as a tool to learn healthy coping skills. You can find your copy from Chattanooga’s Indie bookstore here. Happy Reading!
