Bound To Stay Bound

Other - 06/16/2025 Day (The Mona Lisa Vanishes) and Imamura (Love in the Library) chronicle the story of Mount Tambora’s 1815 volcanic eruption in this intense accounting. Across four parts, engaging, sardonic-feeling text ("The world has been scheduled to end many times, yet it somehow never does") traces the disaster’s initial shockwave through the Indonesian islands and the global consequences of the eruption, which caused weather anomalies that contributed to disease, drought, famine, and civil unrest. Day additionally describes how various groups, such as English farmers and Napoleonic War soldiers, were impacted by the blast and how societal differences like religion factored into peoples’ understanding of its effects. References to cultural historical markers-such as the 1818 publication of Frankenstein-demonstrate major scientific and political by-products of the traumatic events. Government document scans, newspaper excerpts, and more culminate in a multifaceted narrative that illustrates how natural disasters affect climate change, and challenges readers to consider, "How do you tell a story when the people in the story don’t know what’s happening?" Graceful b&w drawings add personality to at-times graphic depictions of catastrophe. Sources conclude. Ages 10-14. Author’s agent: Brenda Bowen, Book Group. Illustrator’s agent: Susan Penny, Bright Agency. (Sept.) - Copyright 2025

School Library Journal - 08/29/2025 Gr 5–8—In April 1815, the Tambora volcano eruption on Sumbawa Island in what is now Indonesia pulverized 5,000 feet of the mountain's slope, launching a plume of ash 27 miles into the sky. The death toll, though uncertain, may have reached over 100,000, considering starvation and disease. But the long-term effects were much greater and farther reaching. Worldwide climate disruption from airborne ash caused drought in some areas and flooding in others, frigid temperatures in New England's summer, and starvation leading to food riots across Europe. It was during this climate shift that 16-year-old Mary Godwin scandalously eloped to Switzerland with married Romantic poet Percy Bysshe Shelley. Forced to remain inside due to incessant cold rain, the author, now Mary Shelley, conceived the idea for Frankenstein as part of a horror story contest with her husband and fellow poet Lord Byron. Day makes the case that many references and themes in the novel are drawn directly from her experiences that year and that the story itself constitutes a climate change novel, drawing parallels and contrasts with our own current climate emergency. The volume concludes with an eight-page bibliography and extensive source notes. The writing assumes a tone that seems intended to be colloquial and informal, but too often tilts into a high style that is glib and pedantic. VERDICT This is a meticulously wrought book and there is an audience for it, but it will require some direct marketing.—Bob Hassett - Copyright 2025 Publishers Weekly, Library Journal and/or School Library Journal used with permission.