Bound To Stay Bound

School Library Journal - 01/01/2015 Gr 4 Up—Unconditional love is filled with ups and downs, trials and tribulations. In this personal poem, Young explores how love impacts our lives. Using elements of nature, he takes readers through water, earth, fire, and wind in relation to love. Each line of text flows naturally into the content of the next page. The images are stunning, with a mix of photography, cut paper, and calligraphy. Vibrant colors of earth tones will appeal to readers' eyes. Some of the pages unfold in unique ways to support the narrative. For example, "Should you be a waterfall, I'll scream when you plunge" has a page that unfolds vertically to give the effect of plunging down the falls. The illustrations also offer various perspectives; the art for "I'll dream you a vision of towering trees" is cut paper rising toward photographs of tree tops to give the effect of tree trunks stretching to the sky. The author's note is an important piece of this book because it tells the backstory of the poem's creation. It reveals how conversation, writing, art, and collaboration can be a healing process when faced with loss. This title would be an interesting pairing with books about healing, love, or comfort such as Georgia Heard's This Place I Know: Poems of Comfort (Candlewick, 2002) or Joyce Sidman's What the Heart Knows (Houghton Harcourt, 2013).—Andy Plemmons, David C. Barrow Elementary, Athens, GA - Copyright 2015 Publishers Weekly, Library Journal and/or School Library Journal used with permission.

Booklist - 03/01/2015 *Starred Review* Young’s love for his two daughters, who lost their mother when they were 13 and 11, was his inspiration for this moving picture-book poem. An ode of acceptance and selflessness, it begins with the line “Should you be a river, I’ll race your rapids downstream,” and the successive motifs confirm that whatever the reader’s form or force, she can rely on the narrator’s limitless support: “Should you be a breeze, I’ll be ripples dancing to your tunes.” Intriguing illustrations include cut-and-torn photographs and solid color paper depicting water, clouds, thunder, and flames, as well as human and animal shapes. Two gatefolds extend the pages: the depth of a waterfall unfolds below the book, and a rainbow rises above. Movement in the text and pictures, highlighted with a mixture of brilliant and subdued colors, entertains the eye and enhances the words. Similar in sentiment to Margaret Wise Brown’s The Runaway Bunny for young children, Young’s offering will touch a wide range of readers, with both parents and children taking something special away. Endpapers reveal the words in Chinese calligraphy and in English, completing the lyrical and heartfelt affirmation of unconditional love. - Copyright 2015 Booklist.