Bound To Stay Bound

School Library Journal - 12/12/2025 Gr 6 Up—From the authors of The Anxious Generation, this lively, relevant guide speaks directly to young readers who have grown up with technology woven into their everyday lives. What makes this book stand out is its upbeat, encouraging approach: instead of shaming kids for using technology, it inspires them to discover balance, adventure, and creativity beyond the screen by viewing technology as a tool rather than something that dictates how they spend their time. Haidt and Price offer kid-friendly strategies, such as turning off notifications and using grounding techniques to increase self-focus, delivered in a warm and energetic tone that feels more like an invitation to explore than a rule to follow. The book contains relatable anecdotes about real teens and their technology use, as well as scientific explanations of the internet and other technologies' impact on teen brains. These are presented through colorful charts that break down scientific terms in playful ways kids will understand and recognize. While maintaining the book's upbeat tone, Haidt and Price also provide an unvarnished look at tech companies' profit motivation for ensnaring young and impressionable customers. Their book's illustrations and graphics are bright, fun, and engaging and feature a diverse set of teens. VERDICT A fresh, motivating guide recommended for students and educators who want to encourage independence, curiosity, and real-world adventures, and a fun reminder that life off-screen can be just as exciting as the digital world, if not more.—Margaret Auguste - Copyright 2025 Publishers Weekly, Library Journal and/or School Library Journal used with permission.

Booklist - 04/01/2026 This young readers’ adaptation of Haidt’s popular The Anxious Generation (2024) aims to present that book’s argument—that kids are spending entirely too much time online—directly to middle-grade readers. Haidt and Price exhort kids to become “rebels” who resist the pressures of “greedy wizards” intent on getting kids hooked on social media apps, presenting evidence and arguments along the way about how many apps are built to be addictive, the negative effects of too much screen time, and more. Interspersed among the explanations are brief comic interludes about a group of kids experiencing firsthand how alienating it can be to focus exclusively on phones. While the analysis comes off as quite heavy-handed, the section that explains the methods by which social media companies lure in users (using appealing colors and graphics, incentivizing engagement, etc.) is very convincing, and might encourage tweens to notice and think critically about how they use social media. While the target audience might roll their eyes at the framing, this could be a useful conversation starter, especially when paired with sources that offer a more nuanced take, such as Emily Weinstein and Carrie James’ Behind Their Screens (2022). - Copyright 2026 Booklist.