Bound To Stay Bound

Booklist - 11/15/2009 This sequel to My One Hundred Adventures (2008) picks up the story of Jane and her family a year later in Saskatchewan, as they prepare to move away, returning to Massachusetts by a roundabout route. Circumstances arise that lead Ned, Jane’s stepfather, to reconnect with women from his past: first, an elderly First Nations woman who took him in when he was young, and next, his estranged mother and sisters. His journey determines the family’s destinations and parts of the plot. While Jane narrates the novel, much of it feels less like her story than in the previous book, though a particularly poignant subplot involves her enduring the hope and pain of a first, hopeless crush and the humiliation of realizing that everyone else knows. Many characters here are distinct, wonderfully idiosyncratic individuals, and Horvath’s fine-tuned observations are conveyed with subtlety and precision. The open-ended conclusion seems to promise another sequel. - Copyright 2009 Booklist.

School Library Journal - 02/01/2010 Gr 4–7— Highly unusual situations and eccentric, individualistic characters fill this quirky sequel to My One Hundred Adventures (Random, 2008). Jane, the oldest of four children, narrates her family's escapades as they go off in search of their stepdad's long-lost brother. Because of Ned's job as a French teacher, the family was reluctantly transplanted from their seaside home in Massachusetts to Saskatchewan. As this story begins, Ned is fired when it is discovered that he doesn't know French. Jane's somewhat mature musings about family life and Horvath's rich prose and characterization breathe life into this humorous and poignant tale. Though basically irresponsible, Ned is likable in spite of his limited parenting skills. He has been out of touch with his own mother and sisters for 20 years. Maya, Jane's eight-year-old sister, suffers from the unstable family life, a problem that Jane seems to notice more than anyone else. Their mother is the epitome of patience and denial. When Ned is called to the bedside of Mary, an elderly Native American who helped him 20 years earlier, the family travels from Saskatchewan to New Brunswick. Ned discovers that his brother, a Las Vegas magician, has left a bag of money with her. Suspicions abound about its origins. Ned's quest to find his brother leads him to his mother's ranch in Nevada and myriad complications. Horvath once again writes with the humor, compassion, and sensitivity that keep readers turning pages. Underlying all the adventures is the longing for elusive true family life.—Renee Steinberg, formerly at Fieldstone Middle School, Montvale, NJ - Copyright 2010 Publishers Weekly, Library Journal and/or School Library Journal used with permission.

Bulletin for the Center... - 03/01/2010 In My One Hundred Adventures (BCCB 10/08), Jane and her family lived comfortably, if eccentrically, in their house on the Massachusetts beach; now they’re just leaving Saskatchewan, their home of almost a year, and Jane’s stepfather, Ned, wants them to roam wherever fancy takes them. It’s not fancy but family that directs their travels, however, as they first get word about Ned’s scapegrace brother and then visit Ned’s long-estranged mother, Dorothy, on her Nevada ranch. There they adjust to their reconfigured family model, stretching further when Ned’s sisters arrive after Dorothy suffers an accident, but Jane still yearns for her Massachusetts home. While My One Hundred Adventures was comparatively conventional for Horvath, this sequel, with its wandering and its continual surprises, is an embrace of her longstanding themes: the balance between restlessness and desire for home, between the need for family and the absence of custom and certainty. While familiarity with the previous book will help enrich the references to backstory, it’s not necessary (save that some new readers may mistakenly think that some events would appear less random with more context, when the context would merely prove that they’re random). Jane has a cool, thoughtful, and wry narrative voice, but she’s also capable of self-deception and misunderstanding, and her self-containment relates as much to her powerless kid status-she’s distanced because it’s an adult mess that she’s been dragged into-as it does to her personality. The twists may surprise readers unaccustomed to Horvath logic, but even novices to her world will warm to Jane’s strange, unpredictable, and oddly beautiful family story. DS - Copyright 2010 The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois.

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