Bound To Stay Bound

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Booklist - 09/01/2013 It has happened to us all: sometimes a bad mood strikes with no good reason. When kitty Olive realizes this is not a good day, she doesn’t mind sharing her feelings with, well, everybody. She won’t play with Molly because dinosaurs are for babies. When Matt asks if Olive likes his new hat, she informs him she hates the floppy topper. So it goes with all her friends. But then Olive comes to the candy store. Now, candy, that’s something that makes her happy, and the more gummy worms she eats, the better she feels. Soon she cheerfully greets her friends, who by now are totally bummed . . . until she shares her worms. (Amusingly, when all the candy quickly disappears, the black cloud reappears over Olive’s head.) Freeman makes moodiness awfully funny and does so economically in the ink-and-watercolor artwork—so many emotions are exhibited with so few lines. It’s rare that a picture book can make the audience identify with all the characters, but this one will have kids feeling bad, mad, and glad by turns. - Copyright 2013 Booklist.

School Library Journal - 11/01/2013 K-Gr 2—A cartoon cat walks across the pages, her bad mood apparent from mishaps beginning on the endpapers and reinforced by her expression, posture, and a growing dark cloud over her head. Olive rejects offers to play and insults her friends, one after another, causing black clouds to appear above their heads and showing how contagious foul humor and grumpiness can be. Olive cheers herself with a bag of candy and wonders why her five friends, now sitting together on a bench, are in a funk. They, too, cheer up when Olive shares her treats. The story conveys the hurtfulness of casual off-the-cuff comments and criticism, and, while candy as a cure-all seems somewhat simplistic, it is the act of sharing that cements the friendship. The characters' expressive faces could enhance a classroom unit on emotions or kindness. For a more positive spin on how children's variable moods affect friendships, try David Ezra Stein's Because Amelia Smiled (Candlewick, 2012). Depictions of handling anger around friends are also effectively portrayed in Linda Urban's Mouse Was Mad (Houghton Harcourt, 2009) and Jeremy Tankard's Grumpy Bird (Scholastic, 2007).—Julie R. Ranelli, Queen Anne's County Free Library, Stevensville, MD - Copyright 2013 Publishers Weekly, Library Journal and/or School Library Journal used with permission.

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