Bound To Stay Bound

Booklist - 03/15/2021 *Starred Review* Grab some galoshes and raid the lost and found for umbrellas because readers will be enamored with inclement weather after reading this beautiful book. It begins with the “plink, plunk, plonk” of drops falling onto a yellow house, a young Asian girl’s smiling face plastered to the front window, her short hair gathered into pert pigtails, her pup at her side. Together they get ready to go outside—yellow raincoats for both girl and dog, followed by rubber boots and a large multi-colored umbrella. Amid a jostling crowd, “umbrellas bloom” and the rain (“Deluge, downpour, / sprinkle, storm, / a drizzle, a mizzle.”) collects into a large puddle into which the girl gleefully jumps. The story’s language and illustrations are wonderfully matched, as both capture the dual wonders on display: that of nature and that felt by the girl. Created digitally, Turnham’s artwork has the appearance of watercolors awash in muted summer tones—coral, plum, sky blue—and it zooms in on the little things that capture the girl’s attention throughout her wanderings, from accentuated raindrops to a wriggling worm to the glistening green that comes after the rain. Maclear’s playful use of alliteration, consonance, and onomatopoeia make this a joy to read aloud and a more realistic, but no less enchanting, companion to Beatrice Alemagna’s On a Magical Do-Nothing Day (2017). - Copyright 2021 Booklist.