Bound To Stay Bound

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School Library Journal - 03/01/2011 PreS-K—A clever concept book with emotional punch and magnificent art is a rare treat. In Gravett's latest triumph, readers meet a despondent chameleon on the front endpapers. He searches for a companion, transforming himself to mirror the objects he finds: a yellow banana, a pink cockatoo, a swirly snail. Each spread sports only two words, plus the chameleon's speech bubble. "Howdy," he says to the cowboy boot. For "Gold fish," he contorts his body into a fishy shape, stares plaintively at the fish across the page, and speaks in empty air bubbles. No one will return his greeting, and finally he crawls onto a gray rock and gives up. The next page is completely white, save for the embossed outline of the chameleon. But what's that reaching from the next page and tapping the chameleon on the tail? The page turn reveals a new friend, and the two chameleons—now rainbow hued from joy—walk off the endpapers together. Libraries may choose to remove the dust jacket rather than tape over the story's ending. While the simple text is appropriate for toddlers, the book is clever enough for older children to enjoy. Gravett's design and art are exceptional, from the masterful use of white space down to the concrete poem of a chameleon created with the copyright and publication information.—Suzanne Myers Harold, Multnomah County Library System, Portland, OR - Copyright 2011 Publishers Weekly, Library Journal and/or School Library Journal used with permission.

Booklist - 03/15/2011 Playful and spare, this nearly wordless picture book from a multi-award-winning British author-illustrator tells a deceptively simple story of self-acceptance. A lonely chameleon, shown first in indigo and aquamarine body shades to reflect his blue mood, tries to make friends, and on each spread, he morphs into colors and forms that resemble his potential pals: yellow and crescent-shaped when he approaches a banana; pink and tufted as he chases after a cockatoo; a purple polka-dot coil as he rolls toward a beach ball. Finally, he sighs, “I give up,” before receding, in barely perceptible, 3-D lines of glossy ink, into a white page. Then he spots another chameleon, wildly colored and patterned, just like him, and the two rejoice. The story’s concept loses a bit of steam on this last spread. (Is the message to make friends with those of your own kind?) But children will enjoy the humor and detail in the beautiful colored-pencil illustrations, strikingly contrasted against blank white pages, and they’ll recognize the chameleon’s elemental struggle to fit in and connect. - Copyright 2011 Booklist.

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