Bound To Stay Bound

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Full Text Reviews:

Bulletin for the Center... - 07/01/2013 Julian and his friends have done something despicable (though it’s not initially clear what), and in addition to getting suspended, Julian has to write a journal chronicling his sixth-grade year. His audience is his English teacher, and he knows that he is supposed to write about the incident, but he’s got other stories to tell, stories that help put what happened into context as he explores his changing relationships with his friends. Though the story is set in 1969, Julian’s difficulties as his absolute fidelity to his boyhood guy gang is challenged by the bewildering and complicated world of girls and growing up will ring true for contemporary readers. Not everything is as credible (how likely would it be for an eleven-year-old to have read Cyrano de Bergerac?), but the book is well-structured, with metaphors that carry emotional resonance and episodes that showcase the fiercely felt loyalties and confusions as well as the laughable stupidity of preteen boys in groups. The writing is elegant in its simplicity and accessibility; Julian is witty without any distancing snarkiness, and he is genuinely sorry for the bullying incident that prompted the writing assignment, proving that good kids can sometimes make grievous mistakes in judgment but neither the bullies nor the bullied have to get stuck in those positions. KC - Copyright 2013 The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois.

School Library Journal - 07/01/2013 Gr 6–8—After participating in an act of horrendous bullying, Julian is given the opportunity to atone for his action and lighten his punishment by writing a book throughout the year. What starts as meandering thoughts and stories about him hitting pigeons and chasing cars evolves into a story of self-realization. The bulk of it is given over to a tangled love triangle. When Lonnie asks Julian, a better writer, to craft a love letter from him to new-girl Jillian and sign it anonymously, she believes the amorous intentions are Julian's. The result leaves bitter feelings between two former best friends. As the story unfolds, Julian comes to identify what he feels is right, not just what his best friend tells him is so. This honest portrayal of 12-year-olds' lives does not gloss over the stupid, hurtful things people do to one another before their moral compasses become fully calibrated. Julian is different from his friends, as he is told throughout the book, but he doesn't see it until the end. In the denouement, he finally stands up and tries to make what he has done right. Not all readers will identify with the sometimes-despicable things the protagonist does, but those who identified with the antihero in Jeff Kinney's "Diary of a Wimpy Kid" (Abrams) but have matured beyond the scope and gravity of that series will find a kindred spirit in Julian.—Devin Burritt, Wells Public Library, ME - Copyright 2013 Publishers Weekly, Library Journal and/or School Library Journal used with permission.

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