A Picture Book of the Plague Year: Outside, Inside by LeUyen Pham

SOMETHING STRANGE HAPPENED ON AN UNREMARKABLE DAY JUST BEFORE THE SEASON CHANGED.

EVERYBODY WHO WAS OUTSIDE...

WENT INSIDE.

It didn't happen on the same day everywhere, but the change came in a swift wave across the country. The pandemic came, and life changed so much. Not everyone stayed inside their homes, because essential workers like those in hospitals and food stores and pharmacies had to go out to work. Mail was delivered. But most of the people stayed inside. If they could do their jobs or schoolwork, they did it at home.

Outside, things didn't look strange. The sky was still blue, and the birds flew from tree to tree and over the houses. The wind blew, and pets went in and out. The green grass grew greener and the kids grew taller. But a lot of people stayed inside--most of the time. They laughed and cried, and worked to take care of each other, because they knew...

...IT WAS THE RIGHT THING TO DO.

ON THE INSIDE, WE ARE THE SAME.

And a better day will come.

The award-winning author-illustrator LeUyen Pham is one of the first to take on the COVID-19 pandemic in her just-published Outside, Inside (Roaring Brook, 2021). Her illustrations capture the good times and the bad, the isolation and the love, of the pandemic in beautiful child-centered illustrations that show the good and bad times honestly and the affection and strength that children found at home and in their much altered school days and play days beyond. A recommended read-aloud for the first weeks of school, Kirkus Reviews writes "... a timeless message of humility, perseverance, and hope.”