Bound To Stay Bound

School Library Journal - 10/01/2024 PreS-Gr 2—Two friends share a punny, silly, and sometimes baffling adventure. In the opening pages, a child with a puff of blond hair and oversized blue glasses buys a bunch of grapes and walks to a city park. Another child with a swoosh of black hair and a yellow jacket is waiting on a bench. The friends greet each other, then the blond child holds up the fruit and asserts that the grapes are grape-shaped. The other child agrees, to the delight of the first, who proclaims, "Well then, I guess you could say it is in grape shape." That pun launches the dialogue for the rest of the book. The first child points to a series of other objects they encounter (a box, a balloon, a beehive, a banana, a giraffe) and declares that each is a grape. The second child insists on the facts at first, but becomes increasingly exasperated and eventually worried as the action becomes more unhinged. The blond child, determined to prove that a beehive is a harmless grape, pokes it with a stick. The friends are pursued by a swarm of bees across five pages before finding themselves riding on a giraffe and then dangling from a kite string with few clues about how or why the plot has taken these turns. Tran's digital illustrations are soft and rounded with pastel-like strokes. She uses simple lines for the characters' eyebrows to convey an impressive range of emotions. Both characters have pale skin; the eyes of the blond child are simple, rounded oval marks and the child in the yellow jacket has larger almond-shaped eyes. Unfortunately, the puns are uneven in their placement in the story and the eventual resolution isn't enough to explain the rest of the book. VERDICT Zany energy, expressive illustrations, and a sweet ending can't overcome a somewhat confusing narrative.—Jennifer Costa - Copyright 2024 Publishers Weekly, Library Journal and/or School Library Journal used with permission.