Bound To Stay Bound

School Library Journal - 05/01/2015 Gr 3–5—Newbery Award-winning author Sachar takes on science and the government in this engaging eco-cautionary tale. Middle schoolers Tamaya, Marshall, and Chad meet in the woods near their school, but it's not to party. Tamaya follows Marshall into the woods because she thinks they're taking a shortcut home. Marshall hopes the detour will help them avoid a beating from bully Chad, who finds the pair anyway. Tamaya stops the boys' fight by throwing some strange-looking mud in Chad's face and inadvertently unleashes an environmental disaster lurking in the woods. The mud is composed of ergonyms, a microscopic life form never seen on Earth before, created by a nearby research facility to produce a safe, inexpensive biofuel. The bad news? Contact with the mud is dangerous for most other life forms already on Earth, starting with Tamaya and Chad. Sachar confidently juxtaposes three time lines, one of which takes place several months after the initial events, revealing some of the devastation to come, which serves to increase readers' apprehension about the characters' fate. Another time line recaps Senate hearings into the biofuel's risks and benefits. Sachar is at his best in these chapters, wryly skewing government power and questioning science's ability to control life and save us from ourselves. A witness at the hearings delivers the author's warning: "Unless we do something to control world population, nothing will help us." Clever petri dish design elements and multiplication equations sprinkled throughout the text help readers grasp the simple math that challenges science's claims of control. VERDICT Featuring a plot that moves as fast as the ergonyms replicate, this issue-driven novel will captivate readers while giving them plenty to think about.—Marybeth Kozikowski, Sachem Public Library, Holbrook, NY - Copyright 2015 Publishers Weekly, Library Journal and/or School Library Journal used with permission.

Booklist - 05/15/2015 *Starred Review* In the woods behind Woodridge Academy, in Heath Cliff, Pennsylvania, a seemingly innocuous substance grows exponentially more threatening by the hour. It’s fuzzy mud. and its discovery is nothing short of spine-tingling. While taking a shortcut home from school, fifth-grader Tamaya Dhilwaddi comes in contact with the mud and breaks out into a terrible, blistery rash. When a boy she’d seen in the woods is reported missing the next day, she knows the mud is to blame and returns to find him. Tamaya’s story is interspersed with court transcripts regarding Biolene, a high-energy biofuel being developed secretly in Heath Cliff. Sachar expertly builds tension as he incrementally reveals the dangers of Biolene and its connection to fuzzy mud, ratcheting up the dangers facing Tamaya and her friends. Unafraid of getting his hands dirty, Newbery Award winner Sachar (Holes, 1998) digs into hot-button topics, including overpopulation, the energy crisis, and bioengineering risks, while introducing readers to Hobson’s choice—choosing between two evils. On a more intimate front, Sachar also incorporates the troubles of bullying, divorce, and the social growing pains of preadolescence, increasing the story’s resonance as a whole. Grounded in well-rounded central characters, this compelling novel holds as much suspense as fuel for discussion. HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: Multi-award-winner Sachar will launch this book with an author tour and national media campaign, increasing demand for the already popular author. - Copyright 2015 Booklist.

Bulletin for the Center... - 09/01/2015 Pennsylvania’s Woodridge Academy is beloved by fifth-grade student Tamaya Dhilwaddi and now hated by seventh-grader Marshall Walsh, who’s become the victim of newcomer and bully Chad Hilligas. When Tamaya and Marshall, who walk home together, duck through the dense woods by the school so Marshall can avoid Chad, the bully nonetheless finds them, and Tamaya defends them by pelting mud in Chad’s eyes. Soon Tamaya notices that the skin on her hand that touched the weird mud is breaking out in a disturbing and bloody rash, and when it turns out no one’s seen Chad since her encounter with him, she realizes his mud-covered face must have begun to suppurate just as her hand has. She slips away from school and heads into the woods to save him, and Marshall in turn heads into the woods to save her. Interpolated dialogue from a fictional Senate committee hearing explains the science fiction element of the story-the “mud” is actually microorganisms bioengineered to create power and ordinarily confined to tanks, but they’ve now escaped and begun to multiply at a frightening rate. Sachar is a master at compact and unintimidating plotting; the school story unfolds with swift authenticity in its own right and then becomes tautly suspenseful as the mud’s potential lethality becomes apparent. Characterization is spare but generally effective (especially with Tamaya, who’s beginning to see that virtue doesn’t get you much cred from your peers but adheres to it anyway) and the dynamics are credible, if a little overexplained when it comes to Chad’s bullying. The science doesn’t bear too much investigation, but that’s not really the point; it’s the unfolding plot, the centrality of the young people, and Tamaya’s conviction that doing the right thing may not be fashionable, but it’s important. DS - Copyright 2015 The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois.

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