Bound To Stay Bound

Booklist - 01/01/2023 A girl confides that her cat, Fred, didn’t come home for dinner last Thursday, though food is his favorite thing. She lists the places she searched nearby, but the illustrations show Fred in motion: driving a car, climbing a tower, and hanging onto the wing of an airplane in flight. The girl posts “Lost Cat” signs with hand-drawn pictures and searches daily, while he vacations on a beach. Though she despairs, he poses for photos at famous sites worldwide, but ends up in a desert at night, looking lonely. Luckily, aliens in a UFO pick him up, track down his home, and beam him down, just in time for dinner. As the story unfolds, Rayner makes good use of contrast, using concise text with digital illustrations to tell the sad tale of a girl who misses her cat, and illustrations alone to show Fred’s adventures, wordlessly and mostly joyously, as he travels. Many scenes use minimal color (black, white, and red) effectively, while others are in full color. A picture book with broad appeal. - Copyright 2023 Booklist.