Bound To Stay Bound

Booklist - 01/01/2023 Rubin follows up The Ice Cream Machine (2022) with a second gathering of original stories, each with several pictures by different up-and-coming illustrators. Though varied in plot and style, each is shared and spun from the same title in earnest of Rubin's message to young prospective writers that “inspiration is everywhere.” The tone fluctuates even more than in the previous outing: there's a hilarious field trip that takes readers to an orbiting amusement park shaped like a human body (which offers a whole new definition for full moon), and a gruesome, twisty whodunit that leads to a character-driven bildungsroman about a temperamental Canadian superhero’s journey to mature human. Best of the lot is a thrilling and poignant circus tale that recounts the career of a blind high-wire artist. The author closes with an invitation to his audience to take his title and run with it themselves, while perhaps checking out the instructional videos on his website. Pedagogical purposes notwithstanding, there’s more than enough entertainment value to light the fuses of readerly—as well as writerly—readers. - Copyright 2023 Booklist.