Bound To Stay Bound

Booklist - 03/01/2013 *Starred Review* When hardworking Nelly May takes a position as live-in housekeeper and cook for Lord Ignasius Pinkwinkle, she agrees to use his special names for the house and everything in it. She must call him Most Excellent of All Masters. His bed is his restful slumberific. His dog is his fur-faced fluffenbarker. The kitchen bucket is a wet scooperooty, and so on throughout the house, or as he would have it, his roof-topped castleorum. Late one night, when she needs to inform Lord Pinkwinkle of an emergency, Nelly May shouts out a warning that strings together one silly term after another. She quits. He asks her to return, and they come to a new agreement. While it lacks the economy of Joseph Jacobs’ folktale Master of All Masters, on which it is based, this picture-book text captures its spirit and interprets it for a generation that might never hear the tale outside this format. Brightened with cheerful washes, Cole’s lively pencil drawings illustrate even the potentially static house-tour scenes with animation while turning Lord Pinkwinkle into a character undergoing a transformation from snooty to aghast to sheepish to friendly. Expanding on a storyteller’s standby, this comical picture book is highly recommended for reading to groups of children. - Copyright 2013 Booklist.

School Library Journal - 02/01/2013 PreS-Gr 3—Nelly May Nimble lives in a tiny house with her parents and her 12 brothers and sisters. One day she announces that it's time to earn her own keep, so she ventures off to the hilltop home of Lord Ignasius Pinkwinkle to hire out her services. Lord Pinkwinkle agrees with one condition; the master of the house has special names for things, and Nelly must use those names when she speaks to him. At first, Nelly obliges, addressing Lord Pinkwinkle as "Most Excellent of All Masters," and using his silly monikers, such as "long-legged limberjohns" for trousers and a "flaming pop-and-sizzle" for his fireplace. But when Lord Pinkwinkle's "fur-faced fluffenbarker's wigger-wagger" catches fire, Nelly has to wake him and announce the fire before the house burns down. Can she remember all those silly names before a catastrophe happens? Cole's illustrations juxtapose Nelly's homestead in the "Bottoms" and Lord Pinkwinkle's "roof-topped castleorum" with deft humor and a folk styling that is sure to appeal to young readers. Nelly is spirited and clever, most surely not just another "fuzzy-dust-and-fooder" that his "Most Excellent Master" thinks she is. With one smart heroine and witty wordplay, this book, which is based on the English folktale "Master of All Masters," will delight.—Carol Connor, Cincinnati Public Schools - Copyright 2013 Publishers Weekly, Library Journal and/or School Library Journal used with permission.

Bulletin for the Center... - 04/01/2013 Impoverished young Nelly May finds employment as housekeeper and cook for the wealthy Lord Ignasius Pinkwinkle, who insists that Nelly call certain things by the names he has created, beginning with himself, “Most Excellent of All Masters.” Nelly May finds that in Lord Pinkwinkle’s house a bed is a “restful slumberific,” a pair of pants are “long-legged limberjohns,” and even the dog is to be referred to as a “fur-faced fluffenbarker.” Nelly quickly memorizes the new names, which is lucky for her because she needs them all when the dog’s “wigger-wagger” catches on “flaming pop-and-sizzle” and the “roof-topped castlelorum” nearly goes up in smoke. Nelly quits in frustration after uttering her mouthful of a warning but is soon rehired by a sheepish Lord Pinkwinkle, who humbly agrees to be called “Pinky” thereafter. This is a lively version of the English folktale “Master of All Masters,” and DeFelice’s storytelling is smart and snappy, with the delightfully overblown vocabulary taking center stage. Intrepid Nelly May is an engaging and likable heroine, and her dwindling patience with Lord Pinkwinkle is made entirely understandable. Cole’s illustrations, line and watercolor textured with colored-pencil hatchwork, are amusing, and his petite, ginger-haired Nelly May is a spunky counterpart to the large, rotund, and rather foppish Lord Pinkwinkle. The fun here is definitely in the wordplay, and this would make a diverting introduction to an activity in which kids create their own names for objects à la Lord Pinkwinkle, as well as a rollicking readaloud or storytelling selection in its own right. JH - Copyright 2013 The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois.

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