Bound To Stay Bound

View MARC Record
 

Full Text Reviews:

Booklist - 05/01/2015 After a yawn and the click of its bulb turning off, a cheery bird lamp on a boy’s nightstand settles in for a quiet night. Only it’s not so quiet. First it hears a “drip, drop, drip,” so the bird makes its way down the hall with a “tip, tap, click, click.” Once it discovers the culprit—the bathtub faucet—it quiets the noise, but that’s only the first in a series of nighttime sounds the bird hushes while the boy slumbers. Ebbeler’s lush acrylic paintings are full of warm colors and swooping shadows, and each household item has a friendly face subtle enough that spotting them becomes a fun game. The after-dark scenes evoke a quiet mood with only a few bouncy words in each scene, which is in sharp contrast to the double-page spread of close-set vignettes depicting the clanging, sizzling, tumbling, and vrooming the house makes during the day. Stuffed with onomatopoeic text that’s a treat to read aloud, this tender tale will go a long way to assuage little ones’ anxieties about nighttime noises. - Copyright 2015 Booklist.

Bulletin for the Center... - 09/01/2015 When a boy turns off his bedside lamp, shaped like a kooky hat-wearing bird, that’s just the start of the adventure in this picture book narrated only by sound effects. The loyal bird/lamp hears a “drip, drop, drop” from down the hall, which is keeping the boy awake, and hunts for the source (in the light of his beam, of course). Finding a dripping faucet in the bathroom, he solves the problem, but then there are other house noises he must identify and ameliorate. Mission accomplished, he returns to the bedroom, only to find the boy’s beloved stuffed animal on the floor; he restores the toy to the sleeper, but all too soon the alarm goes “Rrrring!” and it’s morning again. The focus on sounds is both inventive and perceptive, since audiences will definitely recognize the way ambient noise is magnified in a dark room at night. It may take some viewers a minute to decode the bird’s purpose, but he’s clearly a helpful, if odd, critter even before his overall plan becomes clear. The gleaming acrylics, surreally varying perspectives, and in-art text here recall David Shannon. There’s an edge of weirdness to the slightly personified household objects (buttons, nuts, and drawer pulls strongly suggest eyes) and to the occasionally vertiginous perspectives that’s suitable to the sudden strangeness of a familiar house in the middle of the night. The final sequence, which takes the boy through his day sound by sound in a series of lively panels, may encourage youngsters to think about their own daily sound narratives. DS - Copyright 2015 The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois.

View MARC Record
Loading...



  • Copyright © Bound to Stay Bound Books, Inc. All rights reserved.
  • Privacy Policy