Bound To Stay Bound

Booklist - 09/01/2021 *Starred Review* Henkes begins with a simple image and text announcing, “a house.” The next page, however, invites readers to actively participate in the story, presenting questions about colors and shapes, which quickly become more complex considerations about the locations of objects, visual action elements, time of day, and size comparisons. Next, the house is depicted in a variety of seasons and weather conditions. Using brown ink, watercolor, and colored pencils, Henkes varies each image but keeps the overall design uncluttered. His use of a muted color palette and ubiquitous birds could be viewed as an homage to the late, great Tomie dePaola. A change comes suddenly in the last pages, where the text signals the shift with a declarative, “Look!” Rounded people who look like toys with pink, blue, and green skin tones arrive and go inside. What started as a fun, interactive visual exercise ends up with a gentle message about family and what truly makes a house a home. - Copyright 2021 Booklist.

School Library Journal - 10/01/2021 PreS-K—In a style that resembles the simple elegance of Tomie dePaola's work, and with a narrative arc that has the emotional heft of Pam Conrad's The Tub People, this story follows a house that undergoes a transformation. A gentle narrator guides children through the pages. First, there is just the house. The questions begin: "Where is the door? What color is it? Where is the window? What shape is it?" This approach turns young onlookers into active participants as the house stands through morning and night, above puddles but below clouds, through rain and snow. When small, toy-like people and pets of various rainbow hues line up outside the house's blue door before filing in, there is a shift that is subtle but sacred; the house becomes "home." VERDICT As in Sun, Flower, Lion, Henkes continues to whittle away all but the essentials in his life lessons for preschoolers, and the result is accessible and resonant.—Kimberly Olson Fakih, School Library Journal - Copyright 2021 Publishers Weekly, Library Journal and/or School Library Journal used with permission.