Out of the Way! Out of the Way!

by Uma Krishnaswami, Uma Krishnaswamy (Illustrator)

Overview

Selected for the USBBY Outstanding International Book List

A young boy spots a baby tree growing in the middle of a dusty path in his village. He carefully places rocks around it as the local mango seller rushes past shouting, "Out of the way! Out of the way!" As the tree grows bigger, people and animals traverse the path until it becomes a lane, flowing like a river around the tree— getting out of its way. Over time, the lane becomes a road, and a young man crossing the road with his children remembers the baby tree from long ago. By the time he is an old man, the tree has become a giant. The city traffic continues to rattle past, noisier and busier than ever, but sometimes the great tree works its magic, and people just stop, and listen.

In this simple, lyrical story, a wide-spreading tree and a busy road grow simultaneously, even as time passes and the footsteps of people and animals give way to speeding cars, buses and trucks. The illustrations, in pen-and-ink with vibrant blocks of color, have a classic folk-art feel.

The author and illustrator, who really do share the same name (except for the last letter!), have always wanted to do a book together.

Correlates to the Common Core State Standards in English Language Arts:

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.K.2
With prompting and support, retell familiar stories, including key details.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.1.7
Use illustrations and details in a story to describe its characters, setting, or events.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.2.5
Describe the overall structure of a story, including describing how the beginning introduces the story and the ending concludes the action.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781554982103
Publisher:	Groundwood Books Ltd
Publication date:	04/01/2012
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	28
Lexile:	AD740L (what's this?)
File size:	18 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.
Age Range:	4 - 7 Years

About the Author

UMA KRISHNASWAMI was born in India and now lives in Victoria, British Columbia. Her other publications include Two at the Top, illustrated by Christopher Corr; Book Uncle and Me, illustrated by Julianna Swaney, winner of the ILA Social Justice Literature Award; and The Girl of the Wish Garden, illustrated by Nasrin Khosravi. She has been nominated twice for the prestigious Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award. Uma is faculty emerita in the Writing for Children and Young Adults program at Vermont College of Fine Arts.

UMA KRISHNASWAMY divides her time between illustrating picture books and teaching art and design aesthetics to young adults. She has illustrated many books, including A Dollop of Ghee and a Pot of Wisdom by Chitra Soundar, Dancing on Walls by Shamim Padamsee and The Boastful Centipede and Other Creatures in Verse by Zai Whitaker. She enjoys mixing styles of art from all over the world, but her main inspiration comes from India’s rich arts and crafts tradition. She lives in Chennai, India.

Read an Excerpt

A dusty path ran through a village. People and animals walked up and down, going from here to there and back again. One day a boy spotted something small and green in the middle of the path.

“A baby tree,” he said.

He took some rocks and put them all around it.

“Hey, you,” called a mango seller, hurrying past. “Out of the way, out of the way!”

As the baby tree grew bigger, the feet of all the people going from here to there and back again wore the path into a curving lane.

“Hey, you!” cried the bullock-cart man, with his animals nodding their heads, one-two, one-two. “Out of the way! Out of the way!”

Editorial Reviews

At the outset of this lighthearted account of life in an Indian village, a boy carefully places rocks around a baby tree growing in the middle of a path. “Out of the way! Out of the way!” a mango seller yells. Before long, that cry has new meaning: the tree has grown so big that people must swerve to avoid it. Ox-carts give way to cars. Machines come to pave the road, “sputtering their way carefully around the tree.” Krishnaswamy’s (And Land Was Born) naïf, folk-art figures crowd the pages, selling things and carrying huge loads on their heads, while birds dart and cows wander along. Krishna-swami’s (The Grand Plan to Fix Everything) fanciful prose has an e.e. cummings feel (a crush of blobby vehicles goes “from here to there and back again”). The action can be hard to follow because it’s so diffuse; the boy grows from a young man into a silver-haired grandfather, but he is not always the focus of the story’s action. Still, it’s a rare thing: a book about generations and growth that doesn’t come across as preachy. Ages 4–7. (Apr.)

Publishers Weekly

A great book to use as a tie-in to environmental units as well as multicultural connections

SLM

The title, used very effectively as a refrain throughout the book, emphasizes that change is hurrying us along much faster than we want to go.

The New York Times

There is much to see and enjoy in the small paintings and drawings that make up each scene. This delightful story illustrates how tradition and modern progress can coexist in a way that benefits everyone.

SLJ - Marianne Saccardi

Groundwood adds yet another superior title to their long list of imaginative picture books. An accidental kind of learning occurs when reading Out of the Way! Out of the Way! — and isn’t that the best kind?

CM Magazine - Lara LeMoal

"One day a boy spotted something small and green in the middle of the path.
'A baby tree,' he said.
He took some rocks and put them all around it.
'Hey, you,' called a mango seller, hurrying past. 'Out of the way, out of the way!'"
— from the book


United Nations SDG Book Club Reading List Selection

"The title, used very effectively as a refrain throughout the book, emphasizes that change is hurrying us along much faster than we want to go."—The New York Times

"…it's a rare thing: a book about generations and growth that doesn't come across as preachy."—Publishers Weekly

"A great book to use as a tie-in to environmental units as well as multicultural connections."—School Library Journal

"Groundwood adds yet another superior title to their long list of imaginative picture books. An accidental kind of learning occurs when reading Out of the Way! Out of the Way! — and isn't that the best kind?"—CM Magazine

"The message to stop and smell the roses (or enjoy the tree) comes through effectively as spreads become more and more saturated with imagery that crowds out the white space."—Kirkus

From the Publisher

K-Gr 3—A boy finds a sapling on the dirt path that runs through his village in what appears to be India and protects it with a ring of stones. As the tree grows, villagers reroute the path around it, while bikers and oxcart and motor scooter drivers cry, "Out of the way! Out of the way!" The tree continues to grow, providing a home for animals and a meeting place for people beneath its branches. A city grows beyond the village, the dirt path becomes a paved road for cars and trucks, the boy becomes a man with his own children. Through the years, people learn to carry on their activities "out of the way" of the tree rather than sacrificing it to make way for themselves. They even take time, occasionally, from rushing "from here to there and back again" to sit under it and listen to the old stories. Krishnaswamy's charming folk-art illustrations, executed in mixed media, combine black-and-white drawings with blocks of color. Alert readers will notice that many of the orange outline drawings on the endpapers are echoed throughout the book, in color or in pen and ink. The road cuts through every page, either in a continuous stretch or as winding patches carrying people's footprints as they circumvent the tree. There is much to see and enjoy in the small paintings and drawings that make up each scene. This delightful story illustrates how tradition and modern progress can coexist in a way that benefits everyone.—Marianne Saccardi, formerly at Norwalk Community College, CT

School Library Journal

A boy in India sees a baby tree growing by the side of a dusty path, and, because he protects it, it flourishes throughout his lifetime despite the changes to the landscape around him. Krishnaswami's spare text tracks the tree's growth over time, with the titular refrain "Out of the way! Out of the way!" giving voice to those who hurry past it. Mixed-media pictures inspired by India's arts-and-crafts tradition depict the path turning into a lane, then a street, then a road, signaling the rapid development that transforms the landscape from a quiet, sleepy village into a busy town. Meanwhile, the boy grows into a man, and the tree becomes a meeting place for local people. The message to stop and smell the roses (or enjoy the tree) comes through effectively as spreads become more and more saturated with imagery that crowds out white space. Some readers may be unable to easily identify the boy who leads off the story from page to page, but the text seems less interested in following his character than on attending to the tree's particular role in providing a place of rest and beauty. And in that, it succeeds beautifully. A lovely, unique contribution. (Picture book. 4-8)

Kirkus Reviews