Bound To Stay Bound

Booklist - 04/15/2021 Bear Cub wakes up one morning and sees a pair of underwear hanging on a tree branch right over his cave. No name tag. No clues. Someone has lost their underpants! He diligently begins searching the forest, but squirrel underpants have tail holes, owl underpants are sparkly, salmon wear swimsuits, snakes wear long underwear, and everyone knows bat underpants glow in the dark. As Bear Cub reaches the end of his journey, he is in for a surprise: they’ve been his underpants the whole time! There’s solid repetition in the dialogue that lends itself well to reading aloud and child participation, including the titular line, and there are certainly some giggles to be found in the content. The palate is muted, keeping with lemon yellows, pale greens, and sherbet pinks, which allows the underwear reveals to really pop. While it isn’t necessarily a new or innovative story, it’s a solid contribution to that important children’s book category, Adorable Animals Wearing Underwear, and many kiddos will be tickled to have another underpants book to chuckle over. - Copyright 2021 Booklist.