Hundred Acre's Reviews > Outside In: Nature Poems

If you could, would you bring the outside in? Sometimes we do, we may not even realize it. After all, by opening doors and windows we are welcoming that outside in and of course plenty of wildlife manages to sneak past us! Then there are the times we may have gone for a wet, muddy, even snowy walk. How many times have you done that and found yourself bringing the outside in ~ the wet, the mud, the leaves. There is nothing but fun in all of this, and writing about it is making me smile. So, imagine how I felt when I found out about Daniel Thompson and Julia Murray’s Outside In Nature Poems. My smile certainly got wider and even more so once I sat down to read some of them. They are an eclectic mix; they are unlike many of the poems I have read and the illustrations boldly go beyond the style we may usually associate with poetry. It is a wonder, a delight.

With 50 poems packed into this compact hardback, and pages allowed for illustrations it doesn’t feel in the least bit crowded, rather it inspires calm and happiness, even a sense of peace ~ that sense which only the outside world, only nature, knows how to deliver. Rather than the usual dedication to people Outside In has words from Daniel Thompson, thanking Hopwas Woods where he has ‘grown’ his ‘wild home.’ We share in the joy and wonder of Beautiful Flowers and learn how we, as well as nature and the natural world, have to Adapt To Succeed. To give you an example of the stand-out illustrations, this poem is accompanied by the neck of a giraffe, the words of the title on either side. With a Flamboyance of Flamingos we discover a form of acrostic poem with the clue letters running through its middle and telling us this is A Collective Noun Poem. With every poem comes a new surprise, a delight, a sense of awe and wonder. Everything about this collection reinforces for every reader how important, amazing and simply ‘there’ nature is. This is a must-read collection of verse and wonder.

I write reviews for Armadillo Children's Books and this one appeared in my weekly newsletter, Postbag Picks, in March 2024.