This was not what I expected based on the book's description in the Giveaway I entered. I thought there would be some concrete examples of thinking outside the box, and maybe some puzzles and exercises for kids, but it's really just an extended list of vague concepts like "slow down" and "see the details that no-one else sees". Some of these are better than others, e.g. be proud of your mistakes or try something you've never done before, but overall I wasn't impressed. I'd intended to give this to my niblings (aged 3, 5, and 8), but I suspect they'll scoff at things like "trying to run a race the slowest" and "eating an ice cream cone from the bottom up". I'll give it to their parents instead and let them decide. If the kids end up loving it, I'll come back and upgrade my rating!

STEM mindset but not specific STEM problem.

This was free on Amazon.

At first, I was worried they weren't going to actually explain what "thinking outside the box" really means - they just kept mentioning to do so. I'm so glad they got around to explaining it. Being that this is a children's book, I'm sure this concept is hard to understand. I felt that this book did a great job explaining what it means to do this. It might still be confusing for some younger children but what can you expect. This book had some really nice illustrations to go with the examples. I personally liked the whale eating the ice cream cone from the bottom to top. Definitely a cute book to explain such a simple concept for how to get around those "blocks" in our heads that we sometimes have.

Great moral, great illustrations, great narrative. Every child will like this wonderful book. Though, adults might need it more. After all, children are much better at thinking outside the box and it is adults who force them into conformity.


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Very interesting. The book read more like a material for a team building training (like those run by consulting companies for corporate employees) rather than a kid’s picture book.

I really liked the illustrations - the 3D-like ‘textures’ and colours.