Bound To Stay Bound

Booklist - 05/01/2020 Here Dernavich, a New Yorker cartoonist, pits a fifth-grader with a mania for doodling on things against a bully who has vowed to give him a huge wedgie the week before school ends. As if arranging his life so that hulking Peter Zorber never catches him unawares isn’t tough enough, Elvin’s extreme reluctance to leave any desk, wall, or other surface undecorated has landed him continuously in the soup. His talent—which is evident from his overdecorated room and other exploits depicted in the line drawings displayed on almost every page of this Wimpy Kid–style narrative—proves useful, though, after the team T-shirts for field day are stolen, and he volunteers both to create sketches of the culprit from the descriptions of witnesses and to custom paint replacement tees. Readers who prefer their heavily illustrated and wisecrack-laden accounts of pranks and mishaps on the sweeter side will be pleased to see Elvin, being no Greg Heffley, magnanimously mending fences with his remorseful nemesis at the end of this gentle mystery. - Copyright 2020 Booklist.

School Library Journal - 06/01/2020 Gr 3–5—Fifth-grader Elvin is a talented artist but he runs into trouble at school. He doodles on his assignments, his desk, his locker, and even his lunch tray, in between threats from bully Peter Zorber, also known as the Wedgiemaster. In the end, Elvin's drawing skills help solve the mysterious disappearance of the school's field-day T-shirts, and brings an end to Peter's bullying. The mystery may be too mild to hold readers' interest, and Peter's redemption comes a little too easily: Immediately after he faces school-wide humiliation, he apologizes to Elvin and all of his victims. There is an uneven message about bullying in the narration: Even as he is tormented by Peter, Elvin complains a few times about a schoolmate named Clay who smells "like vinegar." This is never acknowledged as its own form of bullying or an unkind remark. Elvin's mother has a Latinx name, as does his best friend, Carlos. The text mentions students and staff with Asian and Latinx names, and the school's principal is depicted in the illustrations as female and African American; all other characters are depicted with light skin in the black-and-white illustrations. The skillful and expressive art, drawn in bold, fluid lines, appears on almost every page and captures Elvin's creativity, imagination, and taste for gross-out humor. VERDICT Weak on plot but strong on illustrations, this book contains plenty of laughs and school angst for fans of Jeff Kinney's "Wimpy Kid" series.—Lisa Goldstein, Brooklyn P.L. - Copyright 2020 Publishers Weekly, Library Journal and/or School Library Journal used with permission.