Bound To Stay Bound

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Booklist - 02/15/2011 *Starred Review* This picture book could serve as “exhibit A” for how to take a basic story idea and make it delightfully distinctive. With alarm clocks “beeping and buzzing” everywhere, Spider, Elephant, Moose, and Giraffe prepare to head off to their jobs as window washer, independent bookseller, sign painter, and firefighter, respectively. Bulldog, who loves to cook, is unemployed, so after making a fresh batch of cookies, he optimistically sets off to find work. After a series of very short (and disastrous) apprenticeships with each of the other animals, he realizes how much he enjoys his own special talent and opens a bakery in his doghouse, and soon his neighbors are lining up to enjoy a “quadruple-quintuple” batch of bulldog cookies. Each oversize, double-page spread is formatted as a mini chapter, with lines of dialogue and expository text accompanied by a series of small images that tell their own stories. Similar in effect to Richard Scarry’s artwork, the colorful pen-and-ink illustrations are filled with clear and creative details, such as painter Moose’s palettelike antlers, and as with Scarry’s books, children will want to return again and again to find new things on each page. In a difficult economic climate, a tale about a job search is especially relatable for many families. At any time, though, and for any age, a story about following one’s bliss is essential. - Copyright 2011 Booklist.

Bulletin for the Center... - 03/01/2011 Bulldog wants to be a part of the workforce “hustle-bustle” and so sets out in search of a job. With a bag of homemade cookies in tow, he quickly learns that he is not particularly well suited to being a fireman (he runs the ladder up through the roof), a window washer (he’s afraid of heights), a sign painter (he sneezes and sets the entire studio into a frenzy) or a bookseller (when commissioned to shelve books, he gets caught reading a detective story instead). At the day’s end, a disappointed Bulldog returns home, only to find his erstwhile employers seeking more of his trademark cookies, which prompts Bulldog to turn his talents into Bulldog’s Cookie Bakery. There is more than a nod to Richard Scarry in this community-centered tale of a town full of busy animals working in various venues on individually titled, oversized double-page spreads. The text itself is printed under sequential illustrations, like a comic book sans panels, with spreads usually sporting a chapterlike title. The length makes sequential readalouds (or renditions with gentle fast-forwarding) more suited than a start-to-finish treatment, and the simple text and abundant visual clues in the illustrations also make this an excellent choice for early readers ready to work their way through the narrative. Bulldog is nothing if not earnest, and the characterizations of the other animals (a giraffe firefighter, a spider window washer, a moose sign painter, and an elephant bookseller) are particularly well carried by the humorous illustrations (the spider hangs his belongings from hooks on his web, the moose uses one antler to hold his brushes and the other as his palette). Youngsters will adore poring over the bountiful illustrations as they follow Bulldog in his search for purpose. HM - Copyright 2011 The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois.

School Library Journal - 02/01/2011 PreS-K—After Bulldog bakes a batch of cookies, he goes looking for a job so he can be part of the hustle-bustle all around him. He tries working at the fire station, washing windows on tall buildings, sign painting at a flower shop, and shelving books in a bookstore. He fails at everything. He crashes the fire truck's ladder through the roof and freaks out at the height of the windows he's supposed to wash. He sneezes in the flower shop, sending art supplies and flowers crashing, and gets too involved reading the books he's been asked to shelve. All four employers tell him that he's not suited for the jobs. Bulldog offers them cookies and then heads home. That evening, Giraffe the firefighter, Spider the window washer, Moose the sign painter, and Elephant the bookseller show up at his door asking for more cookies. Bulldog discovers his true calling and opens Bulldog's Cookie Bakery. The illustrations were created in pen and ink, colored in Adobe Photoshop. The arrangement of the story is reminiscent of Richard Scarry's Busy Busy Town (Goldencraft, 1995). There are five or six scenes per spread. Everything is outlined in a thin black line and colored in flat hues. There's a lot to look at on each page, and children will enjoy poring over all the details.—Ieva Bates, Ann Arbor District Library, MI - Copyright 2011 Publishers Weekly, Library Journal and/or School Library Journal used with permission.

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