Bound To Stay Bound

Booklist - 09/15/2022 Everyone knows that “no one plays soccer like Madani does.” Madani is the best soccer player his town has seen—and he plays barefooted. When he scores a goal, the celebration echoes all the way up to his house, where his hard-working mother proudly hears the cheers. His teammates imagine how Madani would play even better with cleats, and they burst with excitement when the boy takes the coins he’s been saving in a metal tin to go shopping before a match with a rival team. Madani and his teammates have different ideas about what would make their games “better than ever,” though, and Madani’s ultimate purchase delivers an uplifting message of generosity with a different goal in mind. Translated from Spanish, the well-paced and kindly first-person-plural text was inspired, per a note, by the author’s work in immigrant neighborhoods. Lively illustrations, rendered in pencil, gouache, and colored pencil, make great use of white space and feature a rosy-cheeked, bustling community in warm sepias with smudged lines. An enthusiastic and altruistic heartwarmer. - Copyright 2022 Booklist.

School Library Journal - 12/01/2022 Gr 2–4—This picture book tells the story of Madani, the best soccer player in the neighborhood. He plays with bare feet, scoring goal after goal. His mother, working as a seamstress, hears the distant cheers, but is unable to attend the game due to the amount of work she has. Madani has been saving up all his money, and the children assume it is to buy cleats. However, when Madani returns from his day at the store, he is still barefoot. What he spends his money on leads to his best game ever. The text is told from the children's point of view and is poetic and simple. The soft palette is created with pencil, gouache, and colored pencils. Engaging illustrations are filled with a lot of action and characters for readers to explore. Most of the characters appear white, with a few characters of color in the background. An author's note explains that the story was inspired by Pintadera's experiences with the children in immigrant housing while he was a social worker. VERDICT A good purchase to add to sports collections, books on family, or those on sportsmanship.—V. Lynn Christiansen - Copyright 2022 Publishers Weekly, Library Journal and/or School Library Journal used with permission.