Outside Nowhere is something great for mglit readers

The adage, “Don’t judge a book by its cover” exists for a reason. Outside Nowhere is another book that exemplifies why it’s important not to throw the baby out with the bathwater. Now that I’ve got two potentially outdated metaphors out of my system, let’s get on with the process of talking about a book that grades six and up will love, if they give it a chance. The book’s cover throws up a potential roadblock to mglit readers in that it shows a teenage kid, wearing a suit, with his back to the reader, looking at a farm. Every young reader knows that nothing fun ever happens on a farm so what’s the point in reading Outside Nowhere anyway? But gird your loins mglit readers, hold on because once you dig into Outside Nowhere you’ll discover a novel that brims with comedy, has snappy dialogue with jokes and one-liners that you wish you could say in real time, and a surprising science-fiction twist that reveals the heart of the book.

Yeah, we were surprised by the enjoyment of the book. A testament to how covert Outside Nowhere is in its entertainment is the fact that it lay dormant in our office for a couple of months. It was only when we were knocked up in bed for a week with the flu that I asked our matriarchal delivery service to drop off a handful of books from the office floor. One of those books was Outside Nowhere.

Outside Nowhere starts off in a classic way that will endear itself to mglit readers: with a prank. Parker is a smart kid who is a bit of a slacker, and he’s pulled a prank that alters his grand summer plans. He had been scheduled to go to the Outer Banks of North Carolina for the summer. However, his thoughtless prank and continuous slacker attitude has upended his summer for one that’s more labor than surf.

Instead, he’s sent on a train for two days to middle America so that he can work on a farm for two months. His father knows the farmer who runs the farm and views it as a second chance for young adults who need correction. Of course, Parker doesn’t see himself as a youth that needs correction. He’s a wise-cracking kid who has often had things easy, never had to work for things and hasn’t developed an appreciation for other people’s feelings or their well-being. As long as Parker can get a snarky comment in and have fun doing it then everything is going according to his plan.

When he arrives at the farm he’s given a couple of rules to follow, but the most important one is not to eat the crops. At this farm the only crop that’s harvested are radishes and they are meticulously tended to by a small group of teens that weed, water and plant them in a way that would placate Adrian Monk. These radishes aren’t even sold by the truckload, instead, they’re sold individually, and hand-delivered by the farmer or one of the closely watched farmhands.

One night a cow is discovered on the roof of a barn. How did the cow end up there? It’s in farm country, where crop circles are the stuff of legends, so it must be a UFO. The fact that it’s not a UFO and that Outside Nowhere takes this science-fiction seed and manages to make it grow into a novel about doing the right thing, taking pride in your work and sincerely wanting to help others is quite the trick.

It accomplishes this by having dialogue that’s as snappy as Suits, but having it geared for middle school audiences. Mglit readers will willfully follow along because they’re having fun reading the interaction between Parker and the other farmhands. They’ll empathize when he continues to try to be the center of attention, and then being on the outs with his newfound friends. The grudge that he earns is deserved and difficult to forgive but like any great story, there is redemption and hope.

Outside Nowhere also benefits in its brevity. The chapters are around nine pages long, with some having an illustration or two. It’s a smaller sized book, so it’s not going to be intimidating to read once kids actually open it up. This is the sort of book that will fuel the reluctant reader to jump into it and learn to love to read. Additionally, I could see this book being a read-aloud activity to fifth-graders. The mystery of what’s happening at the farm isn’t nefarious, but it doesn’t make sense and will engage those ages who don’t want to read, but need to stretch their narrative muscles.

At the end of the day, Outside Nowhere is simply a great example of patient, well-crafted storytelling. The characters are disarming and ones that upper elementary and middle school readers will immediately relate to and understand. Its folksy, down-home characterizations are real and will remind readers of people that they know in real life. When you toss in the sense of mystery and humor it’s a book that has the potential to be mglit watercooler fodder for those who want a novel with some cracking dialogue.

Outside Nowhere is by Adam Borba and is available on Little, Brown and Company, a division of Hachette Book Group.

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