Bound To Stay Bound

School Library Journal - 10/17/2025 K-Gr 6—A riotous romp across a school playground will have readers howling with laughter and folding fortune tellers as soon as they can find a piece of paper. From Daywalt (The Day the Crayons Quit and its many sequels) comes the story of Forty, a mostly finished fortune teller that has been discarded on the school yard as the end-of-recess bell rang. Forty finds herself at a loss for her purpose in life until she meets Chip, a potato chip with a bite out of her head. Chip is hoping to make it to safety in Canada but when Forty sees that the playground slide is missing a bolt the dynamic duo decide they must set things right before the impending doom of the next recess. Together they go on a quest facing numerous obstacles, such as a basketball who believes himself king of the court. Forty tells his fortune (which is scatalogically hilarious and perfectly illustrated) and the basketball runs off in disgrace. With Forty's fortune-telling prowess and Chip's confidence they are able to defeat their adversaries and save the day with the help of a gang of wads of gum. The laughs are plentiful, with graphic novel-style dialogue; Cornell (illustrator of the "Terrible Two" series) adds to the delight and fun in this tour de force recess tale. VERDICT A must-have for all collections serving young people, this tale pairs a brilliant sense of humor with great comedic timing. This instant classic will have children pondering their own fortunes as well as those of their friends.—John Scott - Copyright 2025 Publishers Weekly, Library Journal and/or School Library Journal used with permission.

Other - 11/03/2025 Dropped on the playground without making even one prognostication, Forty the folded-paper fortune teller feels purposeless-until she spots a big red bolt that has slipped out of a playground slide’s ladder. Predicting disaster, she enlists a smart-aleck potato chip also left in the schoolyard and sets out to return the bolt. Snappy dialogue and digitally finished pencil and gouache art follow Forty and Chip as they confront a series of goofy adversaries, each thwarted when Forty evokes one of the gleefully unfiltered fortunes a child has scrawled on her corners. (Told it will "marry your crush and go muah, muah, muah, kissing them all the time," a storm cloud stops raining and whisks away a minivan.) And when hostile gum wads threaten the duo’s final approach, Chip shores up Forty’s confidence by declaring that her true strength isn’t fortune-telling-it’s "fortitude!" Reinspired, Forty rallies the gum wads as comrades in arms, replaces the bolt, and saves recess. Predicting that a teaming of Daywalt (Little Freddie Two Pants) and Cornell (What’s Scarier Than Thunder?) would result in a work that’s irreverent, sweet, and slides amusingly to its wrap-up? That’s fortune-telling 101. Ages 4-8. (Feb.) - Copyright 2025