Bound To Stay Bound

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Booklist - 10/01/2015 *Starred Review* Welcome back, Hueys, you of the stick-limbed, pill-shaped bodies with faces drawn smack in the middle. Today the Hueys are taking on opposites, although the pink-colored Huey finds the opposite of “the beginning” a real head-scratcher. Perhaps it would be best to start with easier stuff. Up? Down. High? Well, low, especially once a Huey saws down their tree. Throughout, young readers will have the opportunity to yell the answers to simple opposites like here and there, on and off, and lucky and unlucky, though, of course, all the subtext (and delicious humor) is in the art. Little blue Huey is unlucky because he is stranded on a sweltering desert island, lucky when a box with a fan washes up on shore, and, alas, unlucky again because it requires an electrical outlet. Even readers who know the basics of opposites will get their minds blown here, as a glass is considered half full on one page but also half empty on the next. It’s not easy to be so very simple and so very clever, but Jeffers manages in this laugh-aloud offering that will get groups giggling. In the last spread, pink Huey learns the opposite of the beginning: The End.HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: The Hueys themselves will drive demand, and by now readers expect Jeffers to churn out roughly two total gems per year. Order wisely. - Copyright 2015 Booklist.

School Library Journal - 12/01/2015 PreS-Gr 1—Jeffers's minimalist, oval-shaped Hueys are back, and this time they're talking about opposites. A white Huey starts the conversation by asking a pink one, "What's the opposite of the beginning?" When no good answer is forthcoming ("Is it yes?"), the helpful Huey proceeds to introduce more opposites to his friend, such as "up" and "down" and "high" and "low." A cat who runs up a tree (but has difficulty getting back down) becomes a running motif throughout the illustrations. Blue, purple, and orange Hueys soon join the game as well, introducing such pairs as "light" and "heavy" and "happy" and "sad." Some humor is fairly sophisticated, like a Huey who can't tell the difference between a "half full" and "half empty" glass, and another who finds that the "lucky" fan that's washed ashore on his desert island "unluckily" requires an electrical outlet. Throughout, Jeffers uses his characteristic simple shapes and colors, placed amid abundant white space, to evoke humor, frustration, and surprise. As in many of his other picture books, the main text appears in a large serif font, while characters' commentary appears in smaller, cursive-style handwriting. Predictably, the opening question is revisited at the close of the book, when it's finally answered with "The end." VERDICT An amusing twist on the traditional concept book by a beloved master of shape and line.—Jill Ratzan, I. L. Peretz Community Jewish School, Somerset, NJ - Copyright 2015 Publishers Weekly, Library Journal and/or School Library Journal used with permission.

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