Outside — Benjamin Ludwig

Written for teachers and students, Outside is about the importance of belonging, the choice between trusting authority or trusting your gut, and the danger of letting yourself become just another data point.  Fifteen-year-old Dylan, and his Bigfoot-obsessed brother Bam-Bam, are homeless. They sleep in a tent, even when their mom finds work cleaning houses in exchange for a place to stay. A temporary dwelling, it seems, is the only place Dylan's ever felt he belongs. But when Dylan stops an act of violence at school, putting the perpetrator into a coma, no place is safe for him anymore. The media hounds him, and he's suffering from PTSD. In order to escape and recover, he accepts an offer from Dr. Campbell, an educational philanthropist, to be part of an elite leadership camp in Alaska called The Perspective Project. Dr. Campbell's own son died in an act of school violence, so he's since dedicated his life's work to helping students belong – to give them a sense of tribe – by ending standardized testing and creating experiential learning opportunities in Native communities. At the Perspective Project, Dylan meets five other teens and together the six of them embark on a series of wilderness survival tasks, all designed to build them into a team – but when Dylan discovers Molly's secret, and reveals it to Dr. Campbell, the man becomes unhinged. Instantly, the tasks become overwhelmingly difficult, and Dr. Campbell's unpredictable behavior puts everyone's lives in danger. Dylan discovers an even greater secret, one that will force him to confront his greatest fear, and face a truth that he thought was as good as dead.