Bound To Stay Bound

Booklist - 08/01/2019 Getting little ones to bed at night is always challenging for parents. On the first double-page spread, in tones of black, gray, and white, a little girl sits up in bed with her dog and asks questions. First one: “Why is the ocean blue?” Dad explains on the next blue-toned double-page spread that the fish take out guitars, sing sad songs, and cry blue tears. The questions continue: “What is rain?” “What are black holes?” Her patient dad invents creative responses; each answer requires more ingenuity from the tired adult, but he perseveres. One spread offers 16 more common questions. Finally, the girl falls asleep with her dog, dreaming happily in color about all the topics’ imaginative solutions. This is a clever launch pad for curious children and adults. The large trim size and double pages done in gouache, pencil, and watercolor, assembled digitally, are replete with details both realistic and fanciful. - Copyright 2019 Booklist.

School Library Journal - 10/01/2019 PreS-Gr 2—A loving dad patiently—and inventively—fields big-why questions from his daughter in this appealing bedtime book. Tucked under cozy covers with dog on lap, the girl begins her barrage of inquiries with "Why is the ocean blue?" A page turn reveals her father's whimsical answer: "Every night, when you go to sleep, the fish take out guitars. They sing sad songs and cry blue tears." The full-bleed illustration depicts a lush underwater scene with coral and swaying plants, fish plucking away at instruments with their fins, and arcs of gracefully spouting tears. As the questions continue, the answers become increasingly fanciful. When the inevitable has been delayed long enough and it's time for lights out, the response to the girl's final query—"Why do we have to sleep?"—gently shepherds young listeners into the world of dreams: "Because there are some things we can only see with our eyes closed." Done in gouache, pencil, and watercolor, Arsenault's strikingly detailed artwork depicts the bedroom scenes in grays, blacks, and soft whites. Each question is posed in a circle of muted color, and this same hue is featured in the imaginary scenario that follows, making for lovely book design and emphasizing how the fantastical can sometimes be so much more vivid than the empirical. VERDICT A charming celebration of bedtime rituals and parent-child affection, this book also underscores the importance of fostering imagination and wonderment while nurturing young minds.—Joy Fleishhacker, Pikes Peak Library District, Colorado Springs - Copyright 2019 Publishers Weekly, Library Journal and/or School Library Journal used with permission.