Bound To Stay Bound

School Library Journal - 03/01/2022 K-Gr 3—Growing in the crack of a sidewalk, a little dandelion sets seeds sailing to a new meadow home. Following the seeds' journey from the concrete jungle to a lush summer field, readers will learn all about the little plant's life cycle and versatile habits. The clever integration of text, color, and imagery has the words dancing across the pages in the style of shape or concrete poetry. When a rainbow appears, the multi-hued words arc across the scene. As the dandelion seeds lie dormant through the winter, stolid lines of chunky text evoke the oppressive weight of heavily falling snow. Deer nibbling the tasty flower petals leave the letters looking decidedly worse for wear. Readers will enjoy following the frolicking text, excited to see where it goes at the next turn of the page, culminating in the familiar pleasure of blowing on a dandelion puff. The city scenes depict a diverse and vibrant urban community, creating a pleasurable contrast to the green, animal-filled meadow. Back matter includes additional information about a dandelion's life cycle, enhancing the book's potential for integration into lessons of plants, life cycles, and seasons. VERDICT Perfect for spring, this lively celebration of the humble dandelion adds flair to all collections.—Alyssa Annico - Copyright 2022 Publishers Weekly, Library Journal and/or School Library Journal used with permission.

Booklist - 03/15/2022 *Starred Review* In the form of a concrete poem, Hayes and Chotiner have created an ode to the dandelion, one of the prettiest and most detested of flowers. Beginning with a seed that takes root between concrete slabs of a sidewalk, the tale depicts the plant’s life cycle. Miraculously, a tiny flower survives spring and summer in the busy city, and “on the first day of fall, the wind begins to blow,” which sends the dandelion seeds flying. Readers follow three seeds and discover their fate after they land in a meadow outside the city. The “moving words” of the title perfectly describe the poem’s text as it flows around the pages, changing color and size and adding interest and excitement as readers look forward to its placement in the book’s progression. Bold, appealing illustrations, which advance from the gray cityscape to the lush country pasture, were created in mixed media and meld perfectly with the flowing words. Both pictures and text take readers through four seasons as the words form the rain, snow, and wind the dandelion experiences. The tale concludes with “A Dandelion’s Life,” an easy-to-understand scientific description of the life cycle of the plant, along with sources for further research. - Copyright 2022 Booklist.