Bound To Stay Bound

Other - 05/19/2025 A child speaker excavates their home’s past in a place-based picture book that travels through time. From an open second-story window in a busy suburban neighborhood, a child shown with pale skin and dark hair reaches toward the mountains before the time frame shifts to two years back, when "the landscape looked different." The phrasing repeats iteratively as text and image continue to move through a timeline of other "before"s-from the neighborhood’s development three years ago, to city planning 30 years back, to early-20th-century cattle ranches, the homesteads ("built on stolen land") that they replaced, and the land upon which "the first people-the Utes-set up tipis." Sparingly descriptive prose from debut author Jensen further winds back, envisioning dinosaurs, ammonite-populated oceans, and the emergence of the mountain range featured at the start. Displaying both digital and analog techniques, energetic, retro-style artwork from Ngai (Wishes) employs glowing colors, crisp lines, and a mixture of textile-like patterns. Culminating scenes embrace a scratch art technique for a powerfully layered visual of the way the past remains etched on the present. An author’s note and resources conclude. Ages 4-8. Author’s agent: Ana Crespo, East West Literary. Illustrator’s agent: Gail Gaynin, Morgan Gaynin. (Aug.) - Copyright 2025

School Library Journal - 07/01/2025 Gr 1–4—As a young boy with tan skin and dark hair peers out his window, he imagines the layers of history beneath his neighborhood. He sees the blueprints of the development that led to his current home as well as the ranchers and homesteaders that once inhabited the land. These changes did not come without cost, however, as seen by the displacement of the Ute, a people indigenous to this region. Final spreads go even further back to dinosaurs and the geological forces that shaped the land, as the boy considers how time has shaped all that he sees. The text is simple and spare, moving backward in time with a rhythm that invites curiosity and conversation. Captions in bold at the top left mark each time period, though the inconsistency in using "years ago" language versus specific dates may confuse some readers. The true narrative power lies in the illustrations. The shift from realism to abstraction and the use of color and line beautifully signal the passage of time. Darker hues deepen as the time line retreats and magical elements, like giant pencils sketching history, add a sense of wonder. A powerful springboard for classroom discussions on change, place, and history, this book will have readers reflecting on how land evolves and shapes the lives of its ever-changing inhabitants. VERDICT Recommended especially for group discussion or as a starting place for historical investigation.—Louie Lauer - Copyright 2025 Publishers Weekly, Library Journal and/or School Library Journal used with permission.