Bound To Stay Bound

School Library Journal - 10/24/2025 PreS-Gr 2—Like its predecessors, the third installment of "Earl and Worm" contains three short stories exploring the unlikely friendship between the mismatched but devoted duo. All three tales take place within the span of a single snowy day (Earl's birthday) and focus on Worm's efforts to give her friend a suitable birthday celebration. Only the second story, "The Perfect Present," offers the slapstick humor readers have come to expect from Pizzoli, as the characters attempt to take a selfie using Earl's new camera. The other chapters have less comic relief to offset Worm's displays of anxiety and insecurity; instead, they provide starting points for social-emotional learning. Ample repetition and high predictability make the text accessible for emerging readers, and the witty illustrations add context clues to help with trickier words like "shoveled." Fans of earlier books in the series may be surprised not to find themselves laughing out loud, but many will relate to Worm's moments of impatience and self-doubt. VERDICT A first purchase for early-reader collections.—Amy Reimann - Copyright 2025 Publishers Weekly, Library Journal and/or School Library Journal used with permission.