I thought that this was a nice book and it had a positive message, that there is always something to do outside even if it’s raining, I have a toddler and she loves the rain so this would be a hit with her but the images were a little muddied for my liking and I would have preferred them to be clearer and a little more “young child friendly” - it is 2.5 stars from me for this one rounded up to 3 stars for Goodreads and Amazon.

The illustrations ruined this for me. I like the story and the urge to get readers to go outside, but the illustrations were too rough.

While I like the overall premise showing that there are lots of things to see outside, I do not like the execution of this book. The illustrations are creepy, and the child is shown engaging in dangerous activities.

Camille is bored and her parents are doing their own thing. Rather than asking if she can go outside, she puts on her raincoat and goes out through the window! It's raining outside. Not only that, but Camille can hear thunder. So what does she do in the rest of the book? She plays around outside and climbs trees. Yes, the child is shown climbing a tree when there's lightning in the vicinity. Not to worry, though, because the storm passes ridiculously quickly for plot purposes (and so that Camille can watch a butterfly fly into the "bright blue sky").

I do not like the illustrations here. The bug-eyed people are disturbing. And so is what happens outside. First, Camille meets some sentient ants. You can see one has gotten into her raincoat pocket. I shudder just looking at that; during a sports day when I was a kid, I somehow got ants all over me from crawling around in the grass. It took hours to get them all off. But wait! It gets worse. Next, Camille meets a "spider" (it has six legs and six eyes; I can forgive a bit of artistic license, but not for something that simple). A few pages later, we see that now the "spider" is in her pocket! Nope. I don't care if six-legs there can talk or not; it's still a spider. (This is the point where she's climbing the tree, defying gravity as she's doing it. I'm really not a fan of the illustrations here.) After seeing a butterfly emerge from a chrysalis, Camille runs home to make a nuisance of herself by disturbing her parents and trying to drag them outside. Her father's just spent all morning doing her laundry, and he isn't allowed to even relax with a book and a cup of tea!

The book ends with the thought, "Outside, there's always a show to see." I can't disagree with that. But I do think that message could've been delivered without showing a girl getting covered in bugs (*shudder*) or climbing trees during a lightning storm.