Bound To Stay Bound

School Library Journal - 02/01/2017 Gr 5–8—A kid named Kid travels with her parents from her home in Canada to New York City to apartment-sit and dog-sit for a dog named Cat. Her father's uncle is traveling abroad for six months. While this is a great opportunity for her parents (her mother's off-Broadway play is in rehearsals, and her father will use the time to write his own play), Kid is already missing her own pet, a cat, as well as her friends and her school. When she arrives at the apartment building and looks up, she spies a bit of white near the top of the building. Later, upon hearing rumors that a goat lives on the roof, she wonders how that is possible. As she and her father settle into a routine that revolves around calming her anxious, high-maintenance mother, she meets Will, who is homeschooled by his grandmother, who has taken care of him ever since his parents died in the Twin Towers on September 11. Both Will and Kid have their own quirks and fears, and they fall into an easy friendship and soon decide to investigate the mystery of the goat. This slim, slice-of-life novel unfolds slowly as readers are introduced to key residents of the building who may or may not believe there is a goat on the roof. The list of characters is long, and eccentricities abound, but so do charm and warm humor. VERDICT Hand to tweens who prefer quiet, character-driven novels and fans of E.L. Konigsburg.—Brenda Kahn, Tenakill Middle School, Closter, NJ - Copyright 2017 Publishers Weekly, Library Journal and/or School Library Journal used with permission.

Booklist - 02/15/2017 *Starred Review* Something big is happening at a small Manhattan apartment building. Kid and her parents are newly arrived from Toronto for a few months’ stay to look after a relative’s dog and be in the city as Kid’s mom mounts an off-Broadway musical. What makes this building unique in a skyscraper-filled metropolis isn’t its architecture but the simple fact that there is a mountain goat living on its roof. When rumor of its existence makes its way to Kid, she grows determined to catch a glimpse of the creature, as a sighting is said to bring seven years’ good luck—and her parents could use some good fortune. With her new friend Will, whose parents died in the Twin Towers, Kid begins to canvas the building for information about the goat, facing personal challenges in the process and setting in motion a chain of events that neatly links the residents’ individual lives into a shared narrative. Fleming manages to accomplish an astonishing amount of storytelling in this slender novel, shifting the point of view among Kid, four tenants, and, most wonderfully, the goat, who dreams of leaving his “sad little mountain” and gamboling in Central Park. With delicate insight and humor, Fleming cleverly unites people—and goats—from vastly different walks of life in an offbeat celebration of courage and individuality. - Copyright 2017 Booklist.

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