Bound To Stay Bound

Booklist - 04/15/2018 Pounded by the Blitz, Ruby’s London neighborhood celebrates the war’s end in 1945, but she and her mother must wait longer for her father’s return. Greeting him at the railway station, Ruby feels shy around the big, sunburned soldier she barely recognizes. One day she goes exploring with her friends, Len and Jimmy, sneaking into fenced-off areas full of rubble. When Ruby falls and cries, Jimmy runs for help. Dad soon carries her home, bandages her knee, and suggests that she avoid bomb sites in favor of the park. Grateful, Ruby warms to him, hugs him, and welcomes him home. Hughes, whose chapter book Whistling in the Dark (2017) told of an older girl’s experiences in England during WWII, now offers a satisfying, realistic story for younger children. On the large double-page spreads, gouache paintings portray the characters with compassion. Bright colors seen in clothing and homes contrast with the grays and beiges of the rubble. Unusual mainly in its setting, this picture book presents postwar London from a child’s point of view. - Copyright 2018 Booklist.

School Library Journal - 05/01/2018 Gr 2–4—It's 1945, and World War II is over. After many long nights huddled in bed with her mother during the London Blitz, Ruby and her neighbors celebrate victory and the impending return of many fathers. Ruby has to wait a long time, but finally her dad comes home, changing everything. Ruby's house feels crowded and she doesn't know how to act with this "big sunburned man." Ruby's relationship with her father remains distant until the day she falls playing on bomb rubble. Her father picks her up, carries her home, and isn't a bit mad. Ruby is so overjoyed that she hugs him and cries, "I'm so glad you're back!" With a classic, retro-look to it, this historical picture book is geared toward younger elementary schoolers. The straightforward third-person narrative is brief and printed in an easy to read font, although changes in time and place are occasionally jarring. The ink, gouache, and watercolor illustrations have a diffused Rockwell-esque charm. Hughes's period details and war-torn backdrops utilize color and line well, but they also upstage the stiff people. Much effort is made to convey emotion through facial expressions, but due to wooden features and a certain vacancy in the eyes, the characters never successfully connect to one another. Set against the rubble of war, this slight story seems to imply that although the war was scary, only the city has been truly effected. None of the returned soldiers are depicted as injured either physically or mentally. This rosy view prevents the story from having any real emotional impact. VERDICT An additional purchase for public libraries looking for historical picture books.—Amy Seto Forrester, Denver Public Library - Copyright 2018 Publishers Weekly, Library Journal and/or School Library Journal used with permission.