A charming book with clear and colourful illustrations and flowing verse reminiscent of children's books of the 1960s. Each opening is a two-page panoramic painting of a different location where a child narrates the view from his or her window. The children are of diverse colours and live in various parts of the Northern Hemisphere, but the fact of their race is not belaboured. Then to close the book, the child narrator from the first spread views the moon from her window and reflects that we all see the same moon and really aren't that distant from each other at all. The only really jarring thing about the book was that while most of the twelve cities get four lines of ABAB verse, the middle four get two lines, non-rhyming obviously (AB). Those two-page openings are thus not stand-alone (a disadvantage when a toddler is turning the pages or a five year old is memorizing the book), but sometimes not even a full sentence: when the entire text of the opening and the whole story of a location is "An open gate, adobe walls, the courtyard where we play" or "Rows of houseboats just like mine, tethered to the dock" it spoils the flow of the book. But even though it could be improved, it's still a very beautiful book that I would like to keep.

Update: My daughter, mother of a four year old, had a different take on it. "Too random; you just flit from window to window without time to get used to them or learn anything about them; that's not educational." And it didn't hold the four year old's interest for more than the initial reading. Still a book that would be a treasure for a classroom or public library, where kids could read it once and perhaps turn to other books to sate their curiosity about these beautiful places, but not a keeper for every home. ( )

This is a lovely picture book with a very simple theme: children in different parts of the world see different things when they look out their windows. The illustrations are colorful without being garish, and are deceptively minimal -- the closer and longer you look, the more detail there is to see. It would be perfect for bedtime sharing, but would also be a good choice for the beginning reader to read alone.

(I received my copy of this book from the publisher, through Library Thing's Early Reviewer program, in exchange for an honest review.) ( )

"Outside My Window" is a lovingly illustrated children's book about the different place children live around the world. The books features 12 locations, including New York City, Ethiopia, New Mexico, Japan, the English countryside, and Guatemala. Each location gets a two-page illustration highlighting unique and interesting details about the place. Children will love the simple rhymes, making this an ideal bedtime book.

NB: I received a free copy of this book from LibraryThing's Early Reviewer program. ( )

This was a beautifully illustrated book that shares the story of what children in different parts of the world when they look at their windows. But when it gets dark at night, we all see the same moon. I loved turning the pages and see what the pictures would show. The story is also told in rhyme, fun and easy to read to young children. I received a complimentary book as part of the Librarything Early Reviewers in exchange for an honest review. ( )

The illustrations make this book. In these pages, there's a lovely variety of scenes to immerse yourself in, all similar in style but influenced by the distinct characteristics of places and lifestyles. It's a simple and well-executed concept: what children see outside their windows in different parts of the world. I do have a few quibbles. The locations are listed in the back of the book., and there's a nod to a map in the background, but it would have been so much more engaging to have an actual map with the places marked. For my child, on the lower side of the age range for this book (4–8), the names of the cities/countries were pretty meaningless out of context. The rhymes are sometimes evocative, occasionally a bit too sing-songy for my taste. It didn't really capture the attention of my five-year-old, for whom the lack of characters or a storyline made the book seem repetitive.