Thank you for this advanced look for an honest review. "Let's Play Outside" is a non-fiction text about all the fun things kids can do outdoors. I thought there was a good variety of diverse faces as well as ages from toddler to elementary kids. It models team games and play structures. The words start out patterned sentences (and I really hoped it would have continued that way), but segues to longer text pieces as the book progresses. I love that there is acceptance for playing in groups as well as playing alone. This is a great book to celebrate playtime outside as well as to use as a mentor text for teaching about a topic that kids are natural experts at!

Let’s Play Outside by Pat Rumbaugh is a book which shows how wonderful it is to simply go outside and play. The pictures are high quality and depict real children partaking in fun activities that can be played on a typical playground. The photographs contain a diverse array of children. The one thing that would have made this book better and earn a 5 star rating would be to include words that children would enjoy reading. The descriptions accompanying the pictures are just not “fun” to read. It would be nice if there were rhyming words, alliteration, onomatopoeia, etc. I think that would have made this more interesting and exciting to read aloud.

A lovely reminder of the importance of outside for all of us but especially for children to play. Kids are pictured in photos enjoying play though out the easy-to-read selection.

Let's Play Outside is a lovely little book that encourages children to get outside and try new things. Providing lots of reasons why outside play is the best, this book is a nice break from all of the screen time and the photos in the book are very inclusive across race and gender. The language wasn't as fun to read as some other books without a lot of child-friendly rhyming.