Bound To Stay Bound

Booklist - 02/01/2014 Hector tells of apartheid’s gradual breakdown, which happened while he was growing up in South Africa. As a young black boy, he watches white boys playing soccer, but they ignore his request to join their game. Years pass and changes come. After the first open election, Nelson Mandela becomes president. Later, South Africa hosts a soccer tournament and wins with an integrated team. And, at long last, a white boy invites Hector to play soccer with him. Bildner overcomes some of the problems inherent in a picture book with a time frame extending over several years. Roughly four years old in the opening scenes, Hector is in his early teens at the end, but the illustrations convincingly portray the boys as they grow up, while the narrative thread connecting the story’s events is strong. Combining pencil drawings and acrylics, the illustrations are colorful and expressive. An appended apartheid timeline, aimed at a much older audience, briefly discusses significant events. This unusual picture bookshows social change as it affects one boy. - Copyright 2014 Booklist.

Bulletin for the Center... - 04/01/2014 Living at the height of apartheid in South Africa, a young black boy, Hector, tries to get in on the soccer games that a group of white boys plays in a nearby park, but he’s rebuffed for his race, even as watershed events like Nelson Mandela’s release from prison and the first open election in 1994 occur around him. As the African Cup of Nations galvanizes the country to support the racially integrated football team, Hector and one of the white boys get caught up in the sporting frenzy, becoming friends and playing together at the Cup’s conclusion. Though the book initially focuses on the emotions of the excluded boy, it expands into an effective and informative historical work as it documents the progression of the matches in the Cup, the Cup’s key players, and the social context. Watson’s boldly outlined acrylics are striking and warm in their depiction of the story, dramatically setting its characters against backdrops that wash a single color, such as sunset orange or rich ochre, over pencil details that often convey historical information through newspaper clippings and depictions of political events. This is, then, a remarkably effective tale of sportsmanship and overcoming prejudice in an accessible and high-interest format. The book includes an extensive author’s note, a bibliography of sources, and a historical timeline of South African history. TA - Copyright 2014 The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois.

School Library Journal - 06/01/2014 Gr 1–3—Apartheid has ended in South Africa, but a young boy learns that change takes time in this story of friendship and of a nation healing. Hector plays soccer with his sister in the barren field in his township in Johannesburg. What he really wants is to play with the white boys on the lush green field he sees when his mother takes him to the other part of the city where she works, but they never acknowledge the black boy. Newspaper headlines give a history of South Africa from the announcement that apartheid is over to President Mandela being elected (with Hector's family allowed to vote) to South Africa's hosting the 1996 African Cup of Nations. Each historic step is paralleled by the boys' soccer games in their individual neighborhoods as they root for their South African team, Bafana Bafana, throughout the tournament. When their team makes the finals, both boys attend the game and recognize each other from years of watching from the other side of the fence and raise fists in acknowledgement as they lead the procession of cheering fans in a symbolic uniting of a divided country. Bright acrylic paints and broad pencil strokes bring the characters to life while Bildner's first-person narrative personalizes Hector's childhood during these momentous events. Historical notes provide more detail in this effective introduction to apartheid and Nelson Mandela in a tender tribute to which young readers will be able to relate.—Kristine M. Casper, Huntington Public Library, NY - Copyright 2014 Publishers Weekly, Library Journal and/or School Library Journal used with permission.

Loading...