Bound To Stay Bound

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School Library Journal - 12/01/2011 PreS-Gr 2—Floyd has a problem: his kite is stuck in a tree. Employing kid logic, he throws his favorite shoe to dislodge the wayward object—to no avail. The imaginative hero fetches a host of other items: a friend's bicycle, the kitchen sink, a long-distance lorry, the house across the street, a curious whale ("in the wrong place at the wrong time"). Alas, each item joins its predecessors, lodged in the foliage. Jeffers's deadpan descriptions and the ludicrous scale of Floyd's selections are laugh-out-loud hilarious. As the child carries the house on his head, his neighbor leans out the window, commenting, simply: "Floyd?" Then there is the incongruity between expectation and reality. When he retrieves a ladder, firemen, and finally a saw, readers will surely expect climbing or cutting, but no. Everything gets pitched up, including the light bulb that hovers over the child's head, just before he achieves success. The tree, which continually changes color (and therefore, mood), is a dense, scribbled, layered specimen, perfect for harboring the odd assemblage. The text appears to be hand-lettered, as if written by a youngster. In concert with the quirky, mixed-media caricatures, supported by stick legs, it yields a childlike aesthetic sure to tickle the funny bones of its target audience—and of the adults who share the story with youngsters.—Wendy Lukehart, Washington DC Public Library - Copyright 2011 Publishers Weekly, Library Journal and/or School Library Journal used with permission.

Booklist - 12/01/2011 Floyd’s kite is stuck in a tree, so to try to knock it down, he throws up first one shoe and then another. Stuck and stuck. Gradually, he throws increasingly large and unlikely objects at the tree to try to retrieve his kite—all to no avail—and when a fireman stops to offer assistance, Floyd throws him and the fire truck up, too. In the end, Floyd has an epiphany that releases the kite, but he fears that he is still forgetting something. With smooth pacing, Jeffers organizes the action into theatrical scenes, more than once suggesting the climax only to snatch it away and hurl ever more stuff into the burgeoning treetop. The humor is well calibrated to its intended young audience, who will happily grab at the red herrings and delight at the subsequent surprise turns. Jeffers’ scribbly gestures and buoyant composition set a tone of whimsical hysteria, while the color palette reflects Floyd’s alternating industry and frustration. With deceptive simplicity and sophisticated illustration, this comic look at problem solving will have wide appeal. - Copyright 2011 Booklist.

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