The Inside of ME by Jennifer Comeau
This review first appeared on Reader Views. Read the Reader Views Kids version here.
The Inside of ME is a picture book that shows three kids exploring places around Maine. However, it is more than that. Each page is written as though the children are imagining what it would be like to be nature or, at least, be fully present in nature. The rhyming words also carry readers easily from page to page creating a quite soothing effect. At the end of the book, author Jennifer Comeau explains a little bit more about the places depicted in the story and proposes an activity.
As the three children in The Inside of ME make their way around Maine, Comeau’s prose gently prompts readers to think of how they would explore each place. This is done by both asking questions as well as showing each child finding their own way to take part in where they are. Readers young and old will think of some of their favorite places and how they could be more in tune with them.
This perfectly leads into the proposed activity at the end of the book: MAP YOUR FAVORITE PLACE. Comeau invites readers to map a place familiar to them on blank pages of the book itself while marking spots that readers would like to explore. She then prompts readers to go to those spots and reflect there about what they’re sensing, what the place feels like, and how they would describe it to others. She even welcomes readers to photograph and detail their journey then send it to her to be used in workshops, social media, and other talks.
Illustrator Suzi Linden’s artwork feels whimsical. While it shows what the children are literally up to, it also often depicts what the children are imagining for themselves in the different spaces they explore. For instance, sometimes a child is looking at a gorgeous vista, but also imagining what it would be like for them and their friends to be flying up above the vista. My personal favorite piece of artwork in the book is the one featuring an adorable and delicate seal swirled in water and observed by the children in a boat as it made me pause and smile.
Jennifer Comeau’s The Inside of ME is a wonderfully whimsical and reflective picture book that will carry readers easily through some adventures. However, it will also invite readers to take a pause and think about the spaces and nature that surrounds them.
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