Bound To Stay Bound

School Library Journal - 12/01/2014 Gr 1–4—There is a hint that this beautiful book will not resonate with its intended elementary-aged audience when its first page is headed "epigraph." Indeed, the stated themes of "finding, keeping and letting go" are hardly concerns for children, for whom every day is a new adventure and whose cognitive ability for reflective thought is a few years away. Rosen writes poetically about a young woodland grouse whose late migration is weighted down by the flower seeds she has packed into a little messenger bag—her attempt to capture the past. She falls into a river, is saved by a dog, and lives through the winter with him and his owner, never enjoying the beauty of that season because she is in such a melancholy funk about the end of summer. When spring arrives and the time comes to join her grouse companions, she trades one regret for another: What about her new friends? Danowski is an "analogy archivist" interested in the way drawings can spur human memory, and on her website, she describes their analog structure as accessible in any order. This book is unique in that the pictures were drawn first and Rosen's story was written as a response to the images. Danowski's pencil, ink, watercolor, and digitized full-page illustrations create a gorgeous, romantic woodland world, filled with the recognizable details and detritus of a life lived within it. Though lovely to look at, it's an additional purchase.—Lisa Lehmuller, East Providence School District, RI - Copyright 2014 Publishers Weekly, Library Journal and/or School Library Journal used with permission.