Bound To Stay Bound

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School Library Journal - 01/01/2012 Gr 4–7—The legendary Iditarod serves as both starting point and backbone for this adventure-survival tale. Tatum's family recently moved to Alaska, where her father grew up mushing. The 13-year-old longs to run the Iditarod with him when she's old enough. In the meantime, she hangs out with mushers and learns about the sport and rules for survival in the unforgiving terrain. Tatum strikes up a friendship with Cole, a native Siberian Yupik boy, who is also interested in the sport. The teens take their dog teams out for a run, which goes terribly wrong when a sudden blizzard strands them in the wilderness with little food or supplies. When Cole's sled is damaged and half of their dogs can no longer pull, the teens make the tough choice to separate: Tatum and a team of dogs set off to seek help. Character development is slight, and the narrative initially feels bogged down by many (albeit interesting) facts about the Iditarod; however, some readers may find that a plus. The pace doesn't pick up until Tatum and Cole's peril begins. Shahan knows her territory well and vividly describes the landscape's stark beauty and Tatum's sense of isolation. Heroic dogs, danger, and an accessible writing style add cross-gender appeal.—M. Kozikowski, Sachem Public Library, Holbrook, NY - Copyright 2012 Publishers Weekly, Library Journal and/or School Library Journal used with permission.

Bulletin for the Center... - 02/01/2012 Thirteen-year-old Tatum may be a relative newcomer to Nome, Alaska, but she’s devoted to the sport of dogsledding, and she’s thrilled when her friend Beryl, a several-time Iditarod participant, gives Tatum her retired lead dog, Bandit. Fortunately, Tatum’s able to take Bandit along when she and her mother travel to the isolated island of San Ysabel, just off the Russian coast, where she gradually makes friends with Cole, a Siberian Yupik boy. When she and Cole head out for a dogsledding excursion, savage weather pins them down, and their pleasure trip turns into a fight for survival. The setting dominates the story here, with the remote island, predominantly populated by the Yupik, home to a way of life very different even from that of Nome; Tatum is an effective focal point as an enthusiastic and adaptable newbie who nonetheless carries her own baggage into the situation (she’s got a sentimentality about animals that clashes with the locals’ pragmatism). Stylistically, though, the writing is often choppy and amateurish, shoehorning explanations into dialogue and lacking clarity on some key points (it’s tough to piece together the family’s history outside of Alaska, for instance), and characterization remains thin. The adventure has an appealing accessibility nonetheless, and readers looking for an old-fashioned survival story in an unusual locale may wish to mush along with Tatum. DS - Copyright 2012 The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois.

Booklist - 03/01/2012 Accidents and sudden bad weather turn a short dogsled outing into five days of desperate straits for 13-year-old Tatum and a companion. Though eventful enough to keep young fans of survival adventures reading, the plot shares space with nearly continual info dumps as the author enthusiastically shares what she has learned from research and firsthand experience. She touches on sledding, dogs, and their care; Nome and other Alaskan locales; the Iditarod; arctic weather patterns and hazards; native life and culture; local food; wildlife; and dozens of related topics. The resulting mix of adventure and shoehorned data isn’t as absorbing an arctic odyssey as Gary Paulsen’s Dogsong (1985) or Jean Craighead George’s Julie of the Wolves (1972), but readers attuned to the call of the wild will gobble it down like the frozen caribou strips and turkey-skin treats that keep Tatum’s dogs running. - Copyright 2012 Booklist.

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