Bound To Stay Bound

Booklist - 12/01/2021 Anyone who has lived far from family will connect with the tale of Olu and Greta, two young cousins separated by oceans. Olu lives in Nigeria, while Greta is in Italy. Employing beautiful, highly stylized graphics, Ejaita tells a tale of the cousins’ parallel lives and long-distance friendship fed by absence. As children, they separately dance, pretend to fly, imagine they’re in space, and enjoy the parade, despite growing up in different locales. Yet through all of that, they are somehow together: the vivid illustrations use just five colors, and with both children existing in the same color palette, their lives don’t appear to be so different. They dream of adventures together and share pieces of their lives the way they can—via video calls and old-fashioned mail. Particularly in the age of COVID-19, many young readers will relate to keeping in touch with extended family virtually, and Olu and Greta give a glimpse of what that kind of relationship means over time. - Copyright 2021 Booklist.