Bound To Stay Bound

School Library Journal - 04/01/2014 Gr 2–5—Rabinowitz is a wildlife conservationist and spokesperson for the Stuttering Foundation of America. When he was a boy, he discovered that, despite severe speech challenges, he had a gift for communicating with animals. The book charts his story through college and his travels to the jungles of Belize. Eventually, he overcomes his stutter enough to speak before the prime minister on behalf of the jaguars. Chien's acrylic and charcoal illustrations perfectly capture the tenacious, loving spirit of the author as a boy and a lonely, intrepid young man. Chien has a flair for painting animals as well as portraying Rabinowitz's condition with empathy. One page, drenched in a moody mauve, depicts his anguished face and hands gripping at his throat as he tries to "push words out." With the flip of a page, readers see the boy awash in yellow sunlight, surrounded by animals, his face completely relaxed as he speaks fluently. Rabinowitz's text is elegant, if at times slightly wordy for the target audience: "In this animal's eyes are strength and power and sureness of purpose." The emotional resonance of the text, urgency of the issues discussed, and breathtakingly beautiful illustrations make this book a winner. The story will help children empathize with their peers with speech issues and will be a lifeline to those with special needs or who feel like outsiders for one reason or another. Every library should own this book, a testament to the fierce beauty of jaguars and the human spirit.—Jess deCourcy Hinds, Bard High School Early College, Queens, NY - Copyright 2014 Publishers Weekly, Library Journal and/or School Library Journal used with permission.

Booklist - 05/15/2014 In this poignant autobiography, Rabinowitz recalls the alienation he felt as a child who thought he was “broken” because he could not get his words out fluently. But there are other, more powerful ways of communicating, which Alan knows from the ease with which he talks to animals. As he grows up, he learns to both conquer and embrace the fact that he will always be a stutterer, and he soon becomes an advocate for animals. When, in the forest, he looks into the eyes of a jaguar and sees “strength and power and sureness of purpose,” readers will feel privileged to be part of this magical experience. Chien’s impressionistic illustrations lend a gentle playfulness to the overall solemnity, with muted colors, expressive faces, and arrangements that draw attention to scale and size—all of which remind us that there are many ways to tell a story, whether you are one with words, like Rabinowitz, or one without any, like the jaguar. A mature look at how some observant children understand the world better than some adults. - Copyright 2014 Booklist.

Bulletin for the Center... - 07/01/2014 In this picture-book memoir, the narrator describes his painful childhood difficulties with stuttering and the release he discovered through his relationships with both pets and zoo animals, to which he could talk with ease. As Rabinowitz becomes an adult, he learns ways to reduce his stuttering and begins to study wildlife, beginning with black bears and moving on to jaguars. A test of his speaking abilities comes when he is given only fifteen minutes to try to convince the government of Belize to create a jaguar sanctuary-and succeeds. Upon returning to the jungle, he follows the tracks of an exceptionally large jaguar, only to find that the jaguar is in turn following him: “I know I should feel frightened, but I squat down and look into the jaguar’s eyes. . . . In this animal’s eyes are strength and power and sureness of purpose.” The measured narration and the brevity of the text give powerful weight to the author’s words, and while an author’s note would have been useful to explain some details, these gaps may well prompt kids to Google Rabinowitz to learn more about him and his work. Chien’s acrylic and charcoal pencil illustrations skillfully use color and perspective to add further emotional depth to the text (the stuttering boy clutches his throat in a tight window of white space against a mottled crimson background, for example), and there is a slight resemblance to the art of G. Brian Karas in some of the figures and compositions. Kids with speech issues, and those who bond with animals more easily than with fellow humans, will especially relate to Rabinowitz’s emotionally honest narrative. JH - Copyright 2014 The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois.

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