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Graeme Simsion - NYT Best Selling Author of The Rosie Project
"Engaging and thought-provoking. What a character!"
Mary Webber O'Malley - Skylark Bookstore and Producer at A Mighty Blaze
"Readers will be glued to the pages as they follow Dylan Outside"
Scarlett Lewis - Founding director of the Jesse Lewis Choose Love Movement
"A great example of the courage all kids have inside them when they're given the chance to access it! A brave look at the possibility of growing through challenges in spite of the pain"
Pamela Klinger-Horn - Founder and Host of Literature Lovers' Night Out
"A wilderness camp experience goes from therapeutic to terrifying in this remarkable work of young adult fiction."
Amanda Hunt - TheNextGenLibrarian
"A powerful YA story about perserverance, grief, and survival. OUTSIDE will speak particularlly to those in the education community, and will spark a change for this generation and those to come.
Outside
Release Date: November 12, 2024
Subgenre(s): Young Adult
Trope: Homelessness, Coming of Age, Social Themes
Fifteen-year-old Dylan, and his Bigfoot-obsessed brother Bam-Bam, are homeless. They sleep in a tent, even when their mom finds work cleaning houses in exchange for a place to stay. A temporary dwelling, it seems, is the only place Dylan’s ever felt he belongs. But when Dylan stops an act of violence at school, putting the perpetrator into a coma, no place is safe for him anymore. The media hounds him, and he’s suffering from PTSD. In order to escape and recover, he accepts an offer from Dr. Campbell, an educational philanthropist, to be part of an elite leadership camp in Alaska called The Perspective Project. Dr. Campbell’s own son died in an act of school violence, so he’s since dedicated his life’s work to helping students belong – to give them a sense of tribe – by ending standardized testing and creating experiential learning opportunities in Native communities.
At the Perspective Project, Dylan meets five other teens and together the six of them embark on a series of wilderness survival tasks, all designed to build them into a team – but when Dylan discovers Molly’s secret, and reveals it to Dr. Campbell, the man becomes unhinged. Instantly, the tasks become overwhelmingly difficult, and Dr. Campbell’s unpredictable behavior puts everyone’s lives in danger.
Dylan discovers an even greater secret, one that will force him to confront his greatest fear, and face a truth that he thought was as good as dead.
Written for teachers and students, Outside is about the importance of belonging, the choice between trusting authority or trusting your gut, and the danger of letting yourself become just another data point.
Benjamin Ludwig
Benjamin Ludwig is a New Hampshire public school teacher and writer. He is the author of Ginny Moon, published by HarperCollins | Park Row Books. The book, inspired by his experience adopting a teenager with special needs, was an Indie Next and Library Reads pick, a Barnes and Noble Discover Great New Writers selection, and one of Amazon.com’s 20 Best Books of 2017. To date, it has been published in 19 countries. His novella, Sourdough, was the recipient of the 2013 Clay Reynolds Prize for the Novella.
He lived in Alaska for six years, an experience which in part inspired his latest book, Outside, which is forthcoming from Conquest Publishing in November, 2024. He believes strongly in the importance of experiential learning, and that teaching is an art, not a science. He holds an MAT in English education and an MFA in creative writing, and loves hearing from fellow teachers and writers. You can connect with him through his website (www.benjaminludwig.com) and on Twitter (@biludwig).
Other Works by Benjamin Ludwig
