Bound To Stay Bound

Booklist - 03/15/2021 Creating Holocaust-themed picture books for young children is difficult. Fried’s attempt, translated from Swedish, is fictional but based on her own life as a Holocaust survivor. It was inspired by a child who attended one of her lectures and asked what became of her dog, Bodri, while she was in Auschwitz, among other death camps. The focus on life before the war, and on Bodri’s presence as a loyal friend, somewhat mitigates the harshness of what happened to the author and her sister. Only a few bleak wartime spot illustrations—black drawings of Hitler and soldiers colored with dark splotches of gray—infringe on Wirsén’s delicate watercolors. Leafy trees add constancy, portraying nature as well as the passage of time. Bodri, a large, friendly-looking red dog, is a symbol of hope, waiting beneath the seasonally changing tree until reuniting with Fried after the war. This book walks the edge of what children can absorb about historical tragedies, while maintaining an outcome that is not too Pollyanna-ish, and it does this well. - Copyright 2021 Booklist.