Bound To Stay Bound

Booklist - 10/15/2016 Featuring whimsical, vibrant illustrations, this spotlights 34 cities, from every continent, in a highly visual, if surface-level, fashion. Each city’s spread identifies its country, language(s), and population size and includes color-saturated, page-filling montages of labeled vignettes showcasing people, landmarks, and cultural elements like local foods. Montreal, for example, contains depictions of the Notre-Dame Basilica, a clock tower, and a smoked meat sandwich. New York City includes the Chrysler Building, a diner, and a “legendary sewer-dwelling crocodile.” The simplified, sketchlike images have a retro flavor and are often more evocative or generic than distinctly distinguished, and some vignettes, like “musician” or “hockey player,” seem randomly repeated among cities, though that does serve to highlight commonalities. The captions and depictions don’t always offer meaningful explanations (like “funicular”), and there’s a noticeable lack of pronunciation guides for complex names (like Seoul’s Gyeongbokgung Palace). While the bright, playful artwork is eye-catching, children will need to look elsewhere for more substantive information, like, for example, what Nairobi’s Nyayo Monument commemorates. World-map endpapers and a brief glossary add a little more context. - Copyright 2016 Booklist.

School Library Journal - 11/01/2016 Gr 1–3—A romp through various cities of the world, from Auckland to Seoul, Jakarta to Stockholm, all showcased in wild color (think—the style of J. Otto Seibold). The end pages feature an illustrated labeled map that serves as a visual overview of the 34 cities spotlighted. There are nine cities from North and South America and a mix of popular and not-so-popular cities from other continents. Each country is illustrated with a spread covering things to eat, places to visit, words to know, and experiences to have (ride a rickshaw in Mumbai or look for the legendary sewer-dwelling crocodile of New York). VERDICT Geography buffs and armchair travelers will enjoy studying this book and poring over the fun cartoon graphics.—Tanya Boudreau, Cold Lake Public Library, Alta. - Copyright 2016 Publishers Weekly, Library Journal and/or School Library Journal used with permission.