Bound To Stay Bound

Booklist - 03/15/2023 Though people have tangoed, hopped, and tapped throughout the ages, dance isn’t a singularly human pursuit. Many different species incorporate complicated steps, spins, and shimmies into their lives. The occasionally outrageous moves are used to carefully court, strategically signal, and simply locomote. The boisterous book explores dance across a huge variety of species, from thumping ostriches to cartwheeling eagles, pronking springboks to leaping mudskippers. There are flashes of wings and twists of tails, and representatives from land, sea, and air are all accounted for. Each glorious page or full spread features a creature caught mid-movement, and the digital illustrations are brimming with life and color. The splashy artwork is accompanied by an amusing description in large type and a smaller paragraph giving more detail, opening the book to a wider age range. It’s terrifically entertaining as well as educational, and readers will no doubt be inspired to try out some of the marvelous moves themselves. A rollicking reveal of dance in all its fun and forms. - Copyright 2023 Booklist.

School Library Journal - 06/01/2023 Gr 2–5—Springboks pronk, cottontails tumble, and turtle tickle. Those are just some of the ways animals attract their partners. This volume provides fun and informative insights into the elaborate ways different species get the attention of the opposite sex. Each illustration is paired with a brief explanation of the behavior. Bald eagles, for example, lock talons and then cartwheel through the air, breaking apart before hitting the ground. Humpback whales twist and twirl and dive around each other. The role of courtship in sexual reproduction is handled delicately, with the text explaining that the animals need to find mates in order to have babies. Most of the animals included dance or display as part of their courtship rituals, although there are a few exceptions. Safika lemurs seem as if they are dancing as they move across the forest floor from tree to tree. A dolphin's graceful leap out of the water may be for dominance or simply playtime. Baby cranes even practice pirouettes for later in life. The illustrations are bold and colorful, displaying the animals attractively on white backgrounds. The animals, especially colorful ones like pink flamingos and orange-patterned mandarin fish, pop off the pages. VERDICT An intriguing window into remarkable animal antics that may be part of larger discussions about endangered species, protecting the planet, and the care of wildlife.—Alyssa Annico - Copyright 2023 Publishers Weekly, Library Journal and/or School Library Journal used with permission.