Bound To Stay Bound

School Library Journal - 09/01/2013 PreS-Gr 2—The lovable pup from A Ball for Daisy (Random, 2011) is back. Nearly wordless like its predecessor, this evocative story depicts another misadventure in the park. While playing fetch with her human and her new blue ball, Daisy sees a squirrel. In typical doggie fashion, she merrily chases the critter into the woods and gets lost. Frantic, she howls and looks for the child while the youngster searches for her. The two find each other in the end, though Daisy is still eyeing that pesky squirrel. A clever mix of layouts-mostly full spreads, occasionally changing to two to eight panels across two pages-propels the action. As in his previous work, Raschka masterfully imbues his ink, watercolor, and gouache illustrations with a stunning range of emotions. With a few brushstrokes, he captures the excitement in the lolling canine tongue, the alarm and anguish of being lost, the relief and joy of the cozy reunion. Whether a cautionary tale or one familiar to any pet owner, this book is a must for Daisy fans everywhere.—Yelena Alekseyeva-Popova, formerly at Chappaqua Library, NY - Copyright 2013 Publishers Weekly, Library Journal and/or School Library Journal used with permission.

Booklist - 09/01/2013 Dogs this lovable don’t stay away for long. Daisy, fresh off of her Caldecott (though, happily, it hasn’t gone to her head), is back chasing balls with doggy abandon. Great fun—but wouldn’t chasing that squirrel be even funner? Raschka’s thick, almost abstract illustrations really come to life once Daisy is lost in the forest. Soakings of watercolor approximate the sun as it is colored and diffused through branches and leaves, while finer strokes in the foreground communicate thorns and brush. It’s the big, scary woods as seen by a child (or a dog), and when Raschka pulls back for a bird’s-eye view of little Daisy isolated among the all-encompassing green, it’s emotive rather than realistic, and all the stronger for it. As before, the alternation between full-bleed pages and smaller panels is effective, with each approach bringing with it a different emotional punch. The story? Well, there isn’t one, but kids will like it that way. The tongue-flapping joy of the found dog makes plenty of good, heartfelt sense all on its own. HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: That tag around Daisy’s neck is a Caldecott Medal, which means this is one dog every library is going to want to bring home. - Copyright 2013 Booklist.

Bulletin for the Center... - 12/01/2013 Long-eared dog Daisy (of A Ball for Daisy) is back; this time her ball-chasing leads her to encounter-and subsequently chase-a squirrel. In her enthusiasm to catch the squirrel, Daisy leaves her ball behind and becomes lost in the woods. Her young owner, realizing that Daisy has gone missing, searches for her, and a mournful howl from Daisy eventually leads the girl to her lost dog. The bold ink, watercolor, and gouache illustrations, in rich, saturated colors, carry the spare story; scenes that fill the spreads alternate, very effectively, with scenes broken into a series of panels that show a progression of events. Daisy’s initial pursuit of the bright blue ball, for example, is broken down into four narrow panels, each extending across the width of the spread; the following spread is completely filled as Daisy, ball in her mouth and ears cocked forward, and the squirrel make eye contact, thus slowing the action to focus on the dramatic weight of that moment. The lack of text (“Go get it, Daisy!,” calls for “Daisy!,” and Daisy’s desperate howl are the only words in the book), may make this a bit challenging to share with larger groups, but small groups and lap-sitters will enjoy figuring out the action from the pictures and narrating the events themselves. Young pet owners and animal lovers will especially enjoy the drama-and happy resolution-of this doggy tail, er, tale. JH - Copyright 2013 The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois.

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