Outside In and the Inside Out

a story about Arnold Lobel

A TRUE TALE WITH

A CHERRY ON TOP

Viking Books for Young Readers

(Penguin Random House)

pub. 9.23.2025

40 pages

Ages 4 - 8

Author and illustrator: Emmy Kastner

Character: Arnold Lobel

Overview:

"Arnold Lobel was many things: a quiet observer, an avid reader, and the kind of man who kept a gorilla suit in his closet, just in case. Above all else, Arnold was an artist and a storyteller.

And he infused pieces of himself in the characters he created. This made sharing his books with the world scary sometimes—but his stories would go on to inspire and delight readers and live on in their hearts for generations."

Tantalizing taste:

"Arnold gave Frog and Toad the stories

from his own life.

He was a very good friend.

He knew what it meant to be generous,

to be lonely,

to worry,

to be thankful,

to celebrate…

and how difficult it was to eat just one cookie.

Arnold Lobel tenderly put his entire being

into the friendship of a frog and a toad.

His inside, out."

And something more:  Emma Kastner in the Dear Reader section explains: "I didn't want to make this book. I was wildly intimidated by the thought of telling Arnold Lobel's life story … one cold October day, as I was watching my daughter play tennis at the YMCA, I set down the biography of Lobel I was reading and briefly closed my eyes. I thought, Arnold, am I going to make a book about you? I wasn't trying to actually ask his spirit. Maybe I was asking myself? Either way, that very instant, a woman sitting near me hit my knee and shouted, "Frog!"… I saw her pointing to the actual frog who was hopping toward me and then stopped at my feet! A frog? On the indoor tennis court? On a cold October day? That's the moment I gave up trying to fight myself from making this book and knew that I was meant to pursue it. What a tremendous honor it has been diving into Arnold Lobel's life and work. I am forever changed as an artist."