Outside Over There has been described by Sendak as part of a type of trilogy based on psychological development from In the Night Kitchen (toddler) to Where the Wild Things Are (pre-school) to Outside Over There (pre-adolescent).

To find her sister among the crying babies, Ida plays a captivating tune on her horn until the goblins dance in a frenzy and fall into a stream.

A child is stolen from its crib through a window, accessed by a ladder, and one of the illustrations of the lost baby is a deliberate portrait of the infant Charles Lindbergh Jr.

English singer-songwriter Will Varley sings a song of the same title inspired by the book on his 2015 album Postcards from Ursa Minor.

In Victor LaValle's 2017 book The Changeling, the main character recites passages from Outside Over There in an effort to understand his son's disappearance.