Bound To Stay Bound

Booklist - 11/15/2016 Giraffe’s “first day in the jungle” (catch that metaphor!) takes an uncomfortable turn when a rhino with a book plops down on his back. Soon a monkey, a snake, and, ugh, a skunk all follow suit. To be fair, Giraffe, as Burach portrays him in the loosely drawn cartoons, does have a chairlike flat back and a vertical neck, so the mistake is understandable. “Can’t they see?” Giraffe grumbles. “I have SPOTS and EARS and EYES and” pointing to his ossicones “whatever THESE things are.” His determination to assert his identity hits a snag when a hungry lion takes a seat, but at last his need to pee forces a comment, and the lion flees in terror: “AHHHHH! Run for your lives!!! A talking chair!!!” That does break the ice with his jungle mates though. “Me! A chair. Can you believe it?” laughs Giraffe at the end, as he perches comfortably atop an annoyed tortoise. The rather oblique lesson may need some explication, but even very young children will chortle at the comical pictures and story line. - Copyright 2016 Booklist.

School Library Journal - 02/01/2017 PreS-Gr 1—Giraffe has a problem. It's his first day in the jungle, and everyone thinks he's a chair! All the animals take turns sitting on him—a monkey, a hippopotamus, and even a human mistake the herbivore for a comfy chair! Giraffe has no luck vocalizing his concern. However, when a lion decides to take a seat, Giraffe musters the courage to say, "I am not a chair!" Readers can engage with this goofy tale while also picking up the message of learning to speak up for themselves. The stylized cartoons are done in pencil and acrylic paint. Burach uses warm colors to depict a populated jungle that welcomes readers and the main character to a new environment. VERDICT An amusing bit of silliness that should find a home in storytime and picture book collections.—Briana Moore, Elmont Memorial Library, NY - Copyright 2017 Publishers Weekly, Library Journal and/or School Library Journal used with permission.