Bound To Stay Bound

School Library Journal - 07/01/2018 PreS-Gr 3—Paschkis has created a book of color poems that also ponders the science and art of color. Fourteen poems highlight a variety of shades on the spectrum and culminate with a rainbow poem. Along the way, Paschkis shares facts and information about the colors chosen. The poems are short and clever. For purple, she writes, "I'm a Lilac Point Siamese with no fleas…I purr: I am not purrple. I'm a lilac queen, serene." She then adds, "Violet is the color with the shortest wavelength of visible light. In ancient times…it took about 243,000 snails to make one ounce of dye…that sold for three times its weight in gold. Only kings and queens could afford to wear purple." Paschkis uses broad strokes of color to create her exciting watercolor illustrations. The lively verse and intriguing facts make vivid a most appropriate name for this collection. It is sure to delight lovers of poetry as well as collectors of fascinating facts and will make for an engaging introduction to science for younger readers. Teachers might pair this title with Mary O'Neill's classic Hailstones and Halibut Bones: Adventures in Poetry and Color or Jane Yolen's Color Me a Rhyme: Nature Poems for Young People. VERDICT This picture book will draw readers in with poetry and then provide the spark that may encourage both creative writing and scientific investigation. Recommended for sharing.—Carole Phillips, Greenacres Elementary School, Scarsdale, NY - Copyright 2018 Publishers Weekly, Library Journal and/or School Library Journal used with permission.

Booklist - 07/01/2018 With an artist’s eye, Paschkis explores individual colors on a series of double-page spreads, each offering a large illustration, a light poem, and a few short lines of commentary revealing some aspect of science, history, common expressions, cultural differences, or emotional connotations as it relates to that hue. One entry celebrates the “zillion” words for red, while the note reveals the ancient (and still used) sources of red pigment for paint: rust and cochineal insects. On the blue spread, the text notes that this most popular color is also associated with sadness. In the accompanying illustration, a sorrowful, blue bear sits atop a hill. Blueberries spill, rolling down from the pail he’s evidently dropped, while the accompanying verse reads, “Oh, what did I do? / Blue-hoo, / Blue-hoo!” While the verse is somewhat uneven, most of the poems are enjoyable, and so are the brief, varied informational notes. The many lively large-scale images in the gouache paintings pull the individual entries together into a satisfying whole, while the jacket image is both inviting and expressive. - Copyright 2018 Booklist.