Outside in (Hardcover) (ISBN-13: 9781442468276)

A twelve-year-old boy living on the streets of Chandigarh, India, stumbles across a secret garden full of sculptures and sees the possibility of another way of life as he bonds with the man who created them in this searingly beautiful novel based on a true story.

Twelve-year-old Ram is a street boy living behind a sign on a building's rooftop, barely scraping by, winning games of gilli for money, occasionally given morsels of food through the kindness of Mr. Singh, a professor and father of his friend Daya.

But his prowess at gilli is what gets him into big trouble. One day, when he wins against some schoolboys fair and square, the boys are infuriated. As they chase Ram across town, he flings his small sack of money over a factory gate where no one can get it, and disappears into the alleyways. But someone does get the money, Ram discovers when he sneaks back later on to rescue what is his--a strange-ish man on a bike who also seems to be collecting...rocks? Ram follows the man into the jungle, where he finds something unlike anything he's seen--statues, hundreds of statues...no, thousands of them! Gods and goddesses and buildings, all at half scale. What is this place? And the rock collecting man, Nek, has built them all! When Nek discovers that Ram has followed him, he has no choice but to let the boy stay and earn back the money Nek has spent. How else can he keep him quiet? For his creations lie on land that isn't technically his to build on.

As Ram and Nek hesitantly become friends, Ram learns the true nature of this hidden village in the jungle, as well as the stories of Shiva and Lord Rama, stories of gods and goddesses that in strange ways seem to parallel Ram's...and Nek's.

Based on the true story of one of India's most beloved artists and modern day folk heroes, Nek Chand was a real man--a man displaced from his home in the midst of war and conflict; a man who missed his home so terribly he illegally reconstructed his entire village in miniature out of found objects and rock, recreating mosaic statues and sculptures spanning acres of jungle. Though Ram is a fictionalized character, Nek's artwork is real. Intertwined with mythology and the sociopolitics of India, this is an exquisitely wrought, unexpected, and singular tale about the connection of community and how art can help make us human.

Author: Jennifer Bradbury
ISBN-10: 1442468270
ISBN-13: 9781442468276
Publisher: Atheneum Books
Language: English
Published: 06/06/2017
Pages: 288
Format: Hardcover
Weight: 0.80lbs
Size: 8.20h x 5.70w x 1.00d

Accelerated Reader:
Reading Level: 4.6
Point Value: 7
Interest Level: Middle Grade
Quiz #/Name: 189741 / Outside in


Review Citation(s):
Kirkus Reviews 04/01/2017
Bulletin of Ctr for Child Bks 06/01/2017
School Library Journal 05/01/2017
Booklist 05/15/2017 pg. 52
Publishers Weekly 05/29/2017
Hornbook Guide to Children 01/01/2018 - Recommended, Satisfactory