Bound To Stay Bound

Booklist - 10/15/2023 After a hard winter, the children living in a cold, gray apartment building are ready for fun. They gather on the concrete outside and share a giant box of colored chalk. Amanda draws a large, circular design, and Jackson adds a stem, turning it into a gigantic dandelion. Janet draws a mushroom, and Lovejoy puts an enormous snail on top. The Bradley twins create flowers, while other kids add trees, bumblebees, and a butterfly, transforming the dull concrete into a lush chalk garden, to the delight of the adults looking down from their balconies. Days later, rain washes the art away, but the children turn the bedraggled chalk box into little boats and then race them in the gutter to amuse themselves. The story is simply told, but Graham’s sensitive ink drawings with watercolor washes give each scene a playful, endearing look. In the context of the post-pandemic period, it seems natural that the children at ground level and the adults watching from above are equally riveted by the kids’ activities and creativity in this beguiling picture book. - Copyright 2023 Booklist.

School Library Journal - 12/01/2023 PreS-Gr 2—The joy of children working together in creative pursuit is beautifully captured in Graham's subtle lyricism and delicate illustrations. When a diverse collective of neighborhood children spill like "candies from a box," onto their apartment building's courtyard with a winter's worth of pent-up energy, magic is sure to happen. The drab gray of the pavement provides a spacious canvas for the colorful chalk creation young Amanda has in mind. Her abstract circles are taken up as the petals of a dandelion by Jackson, and accented by another child's mushrooms, and so the concrete garden is sown. Of course, the cheeky neighborhood dog contributes in his own way, to the chagrin of the Bradley twins. The colorful cheer of the "beautiful and exotic" garden—although temporary—spreads well beyond the confines of the apartment courtyard. Graham carefully arranges vignettes on a white backdrop to bring the chalk garden to the fore, and his similes add unexpected depth to the straightforward narrative. VERDICT This read-aloud will inspire many rich conversations about community, emotions, and kindness with preschool and early—school age children. Recommended purchase.—Sarah Simpson - Copyright 2023 Publishers Weekly, Library Journal and/or School Library Journal used with permission.