Bound To Stay Bound

School Library Journal - 03/01/2025 PreS-Gr 1—This beginning reader opens with a young boy carrying a teeming box of toys. Short sentences and repeated words punctuate his play until he notices that his little sister is playing with a blue car. "I want it," he declares and takes the toy. As he continues to play, his collection of toys growing larger and larger, his sister helps herself to a toy dragon on the margins. Once again, the boy declares, "I want it," and this time a fight ensues before he wins it back and promptly forgets about it. Yet again, the girl takes a neglected toy, this time a stuffed rabbit. When her brother announces, "Mine!" she responds, "I want it. I want it. I want it," the font growing larger with each repetition. At this, her brother acquiesces, and they share the toys with a jubilant "Let's play!" The characters' faces are expressive, and Meisel cleverly frames the illustrations to emphasize the disparity in the siblings' cache of toys. Both characters cue as white. The front of the book includes a list of phonics features. VERDICT The relatable story and structured repetition of both vocabulary and plot elements makes this a solid choice for emerging readers.—Lauren Strohecker - Copyright 2025 Publishers Weekly, Library Journal and/or School Library Journal used with permission.

Booklist - 04/01/2025 *Starred Review* In a firecracker of a story, Meisel, a Geisel Honoree for two other I Like to Read titles, See Me Run (2011) and I See a Cat (2017), provides the kind of repetition, short sentences, and familiar vocabulary that are hallmarks of this series for emergent readers. As two siblings engage in an escalating battle, the older sibling, a boy, is shown carrying a box of toys, with one word in the thought bubble over his head: “Mine.” He quickly surrounds himself with toys, including a superhero character, trucks, cars, emergency vehicles, and a large, crazed-looking dragon. His pigtailed little sister has none—until she sneaks a tiny car away from him, happily voicing the truck: “Beep.” This turns out to be the starting point of the fight, with the outraged boy repeatedly demanding, “I want it.” The illustrations, done in pen and ink and digitally colored, are wonderfully expressive. The heavy rings drawn round the siblings’ eyes and mouths make them look completely outraged. The illustrations also move from solitary imaginative play to sneaking into the opposing sibling’s camp to full-out flailing on the floor. Plenty of action that any child can relate to makes this widely accessible, and a nice “Let’s play!” resolution gives a comforting conclusion. - Copyright 2025 Booklist.