Bound To Stay Bound

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Booklist - 03/01/2013 In this retelling of a central African folktale, Mama Nsoso’s baby chicks complain that they are cold and damp in their nest every night. Mama assures them that they’ll get to work building a more sturdy ilombe, but when the new day dawns, the whole family is distracted by the wandering meals of worms and crickets. The whole family, that is, except Little Chick, who collects crucial materials and eventually provides the distractible family with the building blocks they need to build a warm home. The repetitive narrative will appeal to younger children, who like to see what’s coming and will appreciate that the youngest character is the hero. Pinkney provides impressionistic swirls of color that bleed out of the figures of Mama Nsoso and her baby chicks, washing into backgrounds and giving a toasty warmth, as well as a mystical timelessness, to the story that will invite kids to browse through it independently. Mellifluous African words (defined in a short glossary) further perk up the telling, and an author’s note fills in source information. - Copyright 2013 Booklist.

School Library Journal - 02/01/2013 PreS-Gr 2—This story is adapted from a fable told by the Nkundo people of Central Africa, and it evokes a storytelling style through vocabulary and rhythm. Mama Nsoso's chicks complain of the cold each night, and the hen promises to build a new ilombe, a sturdy house. Each morning, however, she gets distracted by tasty treats. Undeterred, Little Chick gathers twigs, leaves, grass, and mud and constructs the ilombe himself. Mama clucks with pride, and the chick finally gets a snack. Bright paintings are loose and full of movement. A curly font highlights the text when the chickens find food. The informal pictures work well with the intimate feel of the text. Children will applaud the success of Little Chick and his mother's pride in him. A good addition to units on fables, farm animals, or African culture, and an enjoyable story in general.—Heidi Estrin, Congregation B'nai Israel, Boca Raton, FL - Copyright 2013 Publishers Weekly, Library Journal and/or School Library Journal used with permission.

Bulletin for the Center... - 05/01/2013 In this interpretation of “The Hen’s House,” a fable from the Nkundo people of Central Africa, Little Chick does all the work of building his family a much-needed new house while Mama Nsoso and his chick siblings spend each day chowing down instead. Evocative, repeated words and phrases, some in the Lonkundo language (the chicks peep “Peo-peo,” Mama Nsoso goes “cwa-cwa-cwa” when she walks), help provide narrative structure for young listeners and enhance the readaloud value of the book. Little Chick’s youthful enthusiasm is utterly charming and his determined work at the house is admirable-though surely some kids will feel he deserves more than a few crickets after all the work he’s done. Pinkney’s bold, slightly abstract illustrations vividly depict the chicks and hen in bright, swirly scrawls of golds and orangey-reds, accented with heavy, black brushstrokes around the contours of the figures. While the busyness of the scribbly lines is a little distracting up close, the little hen and chicks translate well to viewers at a distance. Overall, this is an entertaining, solidly constructed tale that many children will enjoy, and it could serve as a useful contrast to “The Little Red Hen” or Aesop’s “The Ant and the Grasshopper.” Harrington helpfully includes both a pronunciation guide and a thorough author’s note describing her sources and her process for shaping the tale. JH - Copyright 2013 The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois.

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