Bound To Stay Bound

Booklist - 10/01/2019 *Starred Review* In this inviting picture book, 12 friends are planting a garden. Each child is distinct in appearance and personality, but other differences are harder to see or to understand. Seven-year-old Sonia tells of pricking her finger to measure her blood sugar and giving herself insulin shots to manage diabetes, which she briefly explains. Next, Rafael talks about having asthma and using an inhaler when he has trouble breathing. Ten more children in succession talk about their wheelchair, blindness, deafness, dyslexia, autism, stuttering, Tourette’s syndrome, ADHD, nut allergy, or Down syndrome. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor, who began giving herself insulin shots at age seven, offers an amiable, matter-of-fact text in which each child handles a challenge with courage and grace. Created with pencil, watercolor, and acrylic, then digitally manipulated, the vibrant artwork celebrates these self-assured kids, shown working, communicating, and interacting with nature. The garden becomes a metaphor for a community where “all the ways we are different make our neighborhood—our whole world really—more interesting and fun.” Along the way, Sotomayor quietly encourages those who don’t understand someone else’s differences to “just ask” that person or a parent. Addressing topics too often ignored, this picture book presents information in a direct and wonderfully child-friendly way. - Copyright 2019 Booklist.