Bound To Stay Bound

Booklist - 09/15/2013 *Starred Review* Gabby, named for the angel Gabriel, is a daydreamer, and words fire her imagination, creating new worlds for her to inhabit. After her parents separate and Gabby must go to a different school, her daydreams become increasingly vivid, intruding on the realities of the classroom and schoolwork. To Gabby’s occasional puzzlement, her mother worries (“Mom names me for a / creature with wings, then wonders / what makes my thoughts fly”), but her wonderful new teacher is more patient, wisely helping her capture her daydreams on paper and inspiring a new dream to become an author: “Dad is a dreamer / and Mom is a maker. / I’ve been thinking, / maybe / I can be / both.” Grimes, recipient of the 2006 NCTE Award for Excellence in Poetry for Children, has written a novel in verse that is an enthusiastic celebration of the power of words and imagination and a dramatic demonstration that daydreamers are, as Gabby hopes, “cool.” Always accessible, Grimes’ language is vivid, rhythmic, and figurative: Gabby says her dreams are “fancy dancing in my mind,” for example, and thoughts of a circus are a “trampoline to the big top.” Plain or fancy, Grimes’ words speak to the daydreamer in every reader. - Copyright 2013 Booklist.

School Library Journal - 11/01/2013 Gr 4–8—In this brief, free-verse novel, readers meet Gabby, whose imagination is fueled by "words with wings that wake my daydreams." Her daydreams have provided solace from her parents' arguments, but now her father has moved out and her parents are getting a divorce. At school, she finds it hard to make friends and avoid being labeled the weird girl who zones out in class. Gabby's dad is a daydreamer, too, but her practical mom chides her for not paying attention, and Gabby longs to win her mother's approval along with that of her teacher, Mr. Spicer. Gabby's struggles to stay focused in school will resonate with many youngsters, as she tries to: "…catch every single syllable that falls from Mr. Spicer's lips, pass the pop quiz, and still have enough time left to be bored." Most readers will recognize Gabby in someone they know, and this well-crafted tale should have wide appeal. With its focus on creative wordplay and imagination, it could also be an inspiring resource for creative-writing teachers.—Marilyn Taniguchi, Beverly Hills Public Library, CA - Copyright 2013 Publishers Weekly, Library Journal and/or School Library Journal used with permission.

Bulletin for the Center... - 12/01/2013 Always an inveterate daydreamer, Gabby discovers the power of certain words to whisk her away from her present circumstances one night when her father and mother are arguing (“Some words/ sit still on the page/ holding a story steady./ Those words/ never get me into trouble./ But other words have wings/ that wake my daydreams”). From that point on, a single word can send her off on an adventure far from where she should be, whether it’s setting the table or paying attention in math class. Her parents’ split saddens her, but her single-word-inspired daydreams keep her afloat until she finally decides to put them aside. She then focuses with a stern will, but a sensitive teacher, Mr. Spicer, recognizes her unhappiness and figures out a way to make her dreaming productive. Grimes’ blend of simple but perfectly honed free-verse, shape, and haiku poetry transform Gabby’s familiar late-elementary lament into a luminous tale of triumph that reminds teachers and parents as well as its target audience that daydreaming deserves pride of place in our workaday worlds. While it takes her teacher and her mother a while to recognize Gabby’s artistic temperament as a gift rather than a distraction, readers, who have been privy to her inspired visions all along, will have been convinced from the start, and they’ll be eager to try their own hands at turning words into multisensory poetic images. Though branding a book with a label of curricular usefulness can often signal lesser aesthetic quality, this is most definitely not the case here; Grimes offers the complete package of a touching but not overly sentimental narrative, lyrical but accessible poetry, and a compelling rationale for incorporating Mr. Spicer’s method into the school day. KC - Copyright 2013 The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois.

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