Bound To Stay Bound

Booklist - 04/01/2023 As Tracy’s (I Am Picky, 2022) terse but sonorous mix of rhymes and partial rhymes take a housecat from “Sunrise lounger. / Piano-key pounder” to “Moonlight cuddler. / All-night snuggler,” Caldecott medalist Small depicts the many (and often literal) ins and outs of a restless orange tabby whose predilection for domestic chaos (“Mirror attacker. / Morning-tea whacker.”) leads to eviction by outraged grownups but doesn’t prevent a final cozy bedtime snooze in a sleeping child’s arms. Each page sets one cat antic beneath a pithy word pairing. While the day goes from “lovely” to “wild” to “busy” to suddenly “stressful” as lightning flashes outside before landing at last at “very good,” slight changes in the furry troublemaker’s facial expression—signaling feline concentration, startlement, innocence, pleasure, panic, drowsiness, and content—will effectively key similar responses in empathic viewers. A very good book and effective read-aloud about a pretty bad, but still lovable, kitty. - Copyright 2023 Booklist.