Bound To Stay Bound

Booklist - 06/01/2021 Victoria Franken loves science, but what she loves most of all is making slime. With the help of her faithful dog Igor, she creates a lab where she can dedicate her science skills to engineering slime. She begins small, making bouncy, smooth, and stretchy slimes, but soon grows bored with these simple concoctions. In a gleeful demonstration of the scientific method, Victoria begins experimenting and adjusting her recipes as she develops incredible slimes, like rainbow cloud slime and intergalactic space slime. Then one night during a thunderstorm she gets an idea for a new creation. Victoria mixes her ingredients into a glowing green slime, only for it to be struck by a bolt of lightning that brings it to life! Not to worry; a clever twist diverts the plot from horror to happy ending. Playful illustrations utilize a Halloween palette favoring purples, teal, and greens and incorporate fun details and a decidedly mad-scientist vibe. Victoria is a wonderful, inquisitive protagonist of color with a warm heart, and three of her amazing slime recipes are appended. - Copyright 2021 Booklist.

School Library Journal - 09/01/2021 Gr 3–5—With the help of her canine lab partner, Igor, scientist Victoria Franken creates varieties of slime that excite and amaze. One night, after Victoria comes up with a new idea, she and Igor return to the lab and begin experimenting. This time, their hard work results in a slime like no other. Persistent Victoria never gives up trying to perfect her recipes even after multiple failures. Most pages have no more than three to four lines of text. The font is very easy to read. On some of the pages, the author breaks up the text and uses ellipses, resulting in a fast-paced, suspenseful narrative. Victoria is Black, and illustrations include children from different cultures and a girl in a wheelchair. Three slime recipes appear at the end of the book with clear step-by-step instructions. This title is great for group read-alouds or independent reading. The story is entertaining, and kids are sure to get a kick out of the detailed illustrations, which also include sticky notes, diagrams, and lists that Victoria has hung up all over her lab. VERDICT Highly recommended for all picture book collections.—Elizabeth Gold, Midwood High Sch., NY - Copyright 2021 Publishers Weekly, Library Journal and/or School Library Journal used with permission.