Bound To Stay Bound

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Booklist - 03/15/2012 *Starred Review* Gruntly is a pig—and he is also a hog. He won’t share, and if there’s anything to have, he wants to have it all to himself. When he reads a notice touting a treasure hunt at the park, Gruntly is beside himself. Gold! Diamonds! For him! Gruntly is ready. The assembled animals will be given three clues, and each leads to the next. Greedily, Gruntly doesn’t even listen to the first clue, which leads him to fall into the sea. He comes upon the second clue, but he skips the last word, which is why he finds himself looking under a bird’s wing instead of a swing. By the time he finds the treasure (it’s under a log, not a hog), his friends have already found the goods: trail mix. No gold? Well, trail mix is yummy. Gruntly locates his own snack bag, but he’s gobsmacked by the realization that none of his friends had “touched it. Or taken it. Or snatched it . . . Or HOGGED it.” Yes, finally, “Gruntly shared.” The winning duo Lester and Munsinger have done it again. The snappy text is laugh-aloud funny and incorporates a message that the intended audience often needs to hear. Munsinger’s animal pals are as expressive as ever—just the looks on the faces of Gruntly and friends tell kids all they need to know about caring and sharing. Message accomplished—delightfully! - Copyright 2012 Booklist.

School Library Journal - 05/01/2012 K-Gr 2—Gruntly is a badly behaved piglet who not only refuses to share his toys with the rest of his barnyard friends, but also actually helps himself to their belongings. "'What a HOG!' snorted Hampshire, Berkshire, and Yorky. 'He bestows new meaning upon the word,' wise Woolworth said wisely." When the Parks Department invites all of the youngsters to a treasure hunt, aggressive Gruntly jumps the gun and takes off without hearing the end of the crucial first clue. In his greed to take all, he heads in the wrong direction. Eventually, he makes his way through the progressive clues, well after the others have made the rounds and collected their "treasures." At first disgruntled to learn that the prizes were NOT gold, silver, or diamond, but trail mix instead, he chastises his fellow hunters about not saving some for him. Then he finds a bag with his name on it and realizes that no one had "snatched it. Or grabbed it. Or tried a nibble. Or a gobble. Or HOGGED it." He is so touched by their consideration that he actually offers to share a bit with them. In typical fashion, Lester and Munsinger's animal characters display all-too-human expressions and behavior. The pen-and-ink and watercolor artwork is colorful and spot-on, extending the action and humor in the text and conveying the emotions to a tee. The message is forthright, but the delivery, as always, is subtle and nuanced, and loads of fun.—Luann Toth, School Library Journal - Copyright 2012 Publishers Weekly, Library Journal and/or School Library Journal used with permission.

Bulletin for the Center... - 07/01/2012 When the neighborhood park plans a community treasure hunt, an overly confident pig, Gruntly, shows up declaring that he is going to win: “All for me and none for all!” However, Gruntly rushes ahead, missing key information in the instructions and ending up behind the others, and thus stumbles upon the unexpected lesson that sharing is actually a pretty good thing. Lester’s slyly humorous characterization is understated (“Gruntly was skipping along, wolfing someone else’s doughnut and collecting illegal flowers”) are enjoyably witty, and Gruntly in particular is both outrageous and familiar. This will be a definite hit on the storytime carpet; Gruntly’s errors during the treasure hunt have to do with predicting the wrong rhymed word (while the clue directs participants to go to a tree, Gruntly is already heading to the sea), and participants will love shouting out the correct answers. Munsinger’s familiar watercolor, pencil, and ink illustrations make Gruntly unmistakably the star, with flyaway linework enhancing his bristly outline in scene after scene, and there’s an enthusiasm to his pell-mell self-focus that makes him rather endearing. This playful approach to important lessons in sharing and listening is a sure winner for classrooms and families alike. HM - Copyright 2012 The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois.

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