Bound To Stay Bound

School Library Journal - 05/01/2020 PreS-Gr 2—Penelope is back from We Don't Eat Our Classmates. Penelope is the only T. rex in her school, where she loves to play, read, draw, and sing with her guitar. However, everyone tends to remember her first unfortunate days of gulping down her classmates and see her only in the role of dinosaur in their games. Signing up for the school talent show is difficult and scary. Her thoughts keep returning to words she heard as she first took the school stage—"Can dinosaurs even play a guitar?" After days of agonizing, and a memorable talk with her dad, Penelope realizes that being a T. rex is only part of who she is. With surprise, she discovers that her classmates actually want to be part of her band. Colorful digital illustrations with ink and graphite feature speech bubbles that enhance the dialogue, while full-page scenes detail Penelope's world at school and home, e.g., a moment of low self-esteem shrinks her to a small circle of light within a double-page spread of darkness. Penelope's feelings are easily identifiable in images of eyes bright with tears from sadness and insecurity or shy smiles of pride. VERDICT A thoughtful and humorous story. Penelope's latest adventure is a welcome addition for young readers and a suggested first purchase for all libraries.—Mary Elam, Learning Media Services, Plano ISD, TX - Copyright 2020 Publishers Weekly, Library Journal and/or School Library Journal used with permission.

Booklist - 05/15/2020 Penelope the T. rex has gotten over chowing down on fellow students (We Don't Eat Our Classmates, 2018), but she chafes at being typecast as a dinosaur whenever the others, who are all human kids, want to role-play. Unfortunately, her determination to show them that she can be more by rocking out at the upcoming talent show hits a sour note when she freezes up during the rehearsal. Maybe dinosaurs can’t really sing or play guitar or be anything but dinosaurs. As in the opener, Dad's got a pep talk waiting at home. And so a rock star is born. Though she towers over her notably diverse schoolmates, Penelope looks anything but fearsome, sporting the shiny eyes and blunt, squared-off nose of a plush toy (even under heavy stage makeup). The ferociously scowling class goldfish Walter cuts a more fearsome figure—that is, until the curtain goes up on the climactic scene. Whether or not Penelope comes in first ends up not mattering too much—perceptive readers will understand that winning wasn’t (and shouldn’t be) the point. - Copyright 2020 Booklist.