Bound To Stay Bound

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Booklist - 06/01/2011 Blending a school story, toy story, and time-travel tale, this book, put together by the New York Hall of Science, strives to make evolution easy to grasp. When Charlie is given a school project, he decides to do a presentation (inspired by a stuffed toy) on the kiwi. Bemoaning his failure to bring to life the facts about the flightless bird, he is rescued by his New Zealand souvenir, which takes him on an adventure to the past. There, Charlie meets his five-times great-grandfather (who by implication seems to be Charles Darwin). Further journeys go back eons, where kiwis are found adapting to their environment, developing long beaks, and so on. The threesome then lands in the time of dinosaurs to gather more background. Of course, with dinosaurs in it, Charlie’s report is a success. Cartoonish pictures illustrate the passage of time in contained chunks, making the concepts digestible for young, evolving scientific thinkers. One historical quibble, though: the link between birds and dinosaurs is recent and would have been unknown to the real Darwin. - Copyright 2011 Booklist.

School Library Journal - 07/01/2011 Gr 1–4—This story was written to supplement a traveling exhibit by the New York Hall of Science. Young Charlie is assigned to write a report about a bird. He selects the kiwi and sets out to learn why it has such unusual traits. The story becomes fantastic when a toy kiwi that inspired the project comes to life and invites Charlie on a time-travel adventure back to 1860. The boy meets his Great-Great-Great-Grandpa Charles Darwin, and together they travel back 30 million years to the time of the first kiwis. Darwin enlightens Charlie about his theory of natural selection by viewing the birds and their adaptations. Charlie and his grandpa then travel farther back to the days of the dinosaurs where they witness feathered reptiles. Together they arrive at the conclusion that the first birds were dinosaurs. Upon his return to the present, Charlie presents his conclusions to his classmates and Darwin has a new idea to ponder. This book would be a nice addition to units on evolution, and it has merit as a good reinforcement for the concepts introduced in the exhibition, but for general use, children might prefer to visit the exhibit online and hear the book narrated with animation. The digital-cartoon illustrations are sufficient to support the text but are not impressive.—Diane Antezzo, Ridgefield Library, CT - Copyright 2011 Publishers Weekly, Library Journal and/or School Library Journal used with permission.

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