Bound To Stay Bound

Booklist - 04/15/2020 *Starred Review* When 11-year-old Abi and her recently blended family (father Theo, stepmother Polly, and stepbrothers 13-year-old Max and 6-year-old Louis) move into their new home, she’s relieved to have her own room, but she struggles to adjust to having brothers. Soon after Polly leaves on an extended business trip, the magic starts. Interrupted while absorbed in reading Kon-Tiki, Abi finds that her book is inexplicably drenched with salt water. Louis, who longs for an owl as a companion, attracts a different creature to his bedroom: a leopard-like cat that grows from small and wild to enormous and terrifying. And Max, meeting Louis’ new babysitter, experiences a different sort of enchantment: his first overwhelming, painful, life-changing crush. McKay’s own magic is the ability to portray individuals, their quirky differences, and their shifting relationships in ways that seem realistic and uncommonly absorbing. Within the story, tension builds steadily on several fronts, then resolves as the characters begin to form bonds of trust and even kinship, along with the unspoken realization that they can rely on each other. The family’s tall, narrow, vine-covered house has a strong presence in the novel, as both a portal between dimensions and a place where a “Narnia light” welcomes them back home. A memorable family story. - Copyright 2020 Booklist.

Booklist - 04/15/2020 - Copyright 2020 Booklist.

School Library Journal - 07/01/2020 - Copyright 2020 Publishers Weekly, Library Journal and/or School Library Journal used with permission.

School Library Journal - 07/01/2020 Gr 5–7— Eleven-year-old Abi, motherless since infancy, and her recently blended family have moved into an old ivy-covered house in north London, where she must learn to navigate life between older and younger stepbrothers Max and Louis. Now that her father Theo is remarried, her beloved Granny Grace who helped raise her has moved back to Jamaica, sending her wise and encouraging letters which are the envy of six-year-old Louis. In the new house, Abi's escape into reading in her attic bedroom takes on a strange new dimension; not only does she feel herself becoming part of the stories but she finds tangible evidence of the books' settings. When stepmother Polly goes on an extended business trip, French art student Esme is hired to watch Louis after school, providing Max, 13, with his first infatuation and Louis with a mysterious night visitor, Iffen, a catlike creature derived from Esme's drawings. As Abi and Max devise a plan to rescue Louis from Iffen's growing menace, they form a bond which points the way to true familial love and loyalty. As in her "Saffy's Angel" series, McKay employs deft characterization, vivid setting, delicious humor and some beautifully lyrical language to portray the struggles and successes of what it means to be a family. VERDICT A perfect mix of magic and realism. Recommended for juvenile fantasy collections.—Marie Orlando, formerly at Suffolk Coop. Lib. Syst., Bellport, NY - Copyright 2020 Publishers Weekly, Library Journal and/or School Library Journal used with permission.

School Library Journal - 02/01/2020 - Copyright 2020 Publishers Weekly, Library Journal and/or School Library Journal used with permission.

School Library Journal - 02/01/2020 - Copyright 2020 Publishers Weekly, Library Journal and/or School Library Journal used with permission.

School Library Journal - 02/01/2020 - Copyright 2020 Publishers Weekly, Library Journal and/or School Library Journal used with permission.

School Library Journal - 02/01/2020 - Copyright 2020 Publishers Weekly, Library Journal and/or School Library Journal used with permission.