Bound To Stay Bound

Booklist - 06/01/2018 In Nelson Mandela’s picture-book biography, his daughter Zindzi is requested by her grandchildren to tell them again about their great-grandfather’s life. A question-and-answer format communicates the elder Mandela’s history in an easy-to-understand format for children. Information is given about his birthplace, the conditions of his childhood, his education, and how he ended up serving 27 years in prison. Though the difficulty of living through apartheid in South Africa and its unfairness to black people is described, the text is positive and affirms the progress made due to Mandela’s work and sacrifices: “The first thing he did when he became president was to unite all South Africans.” Words such as justice, apartheid, and Ubuntu are defined in simple terms to help readers understand Mandela’s mission. Qualls’ large collage, colored pencil, and acrylic paint illustrations depict a variety of important moments and reveal that Mandela had the backing and support of people of all colors. Mandela’s story publishes this year in honor of his one hundredth birthday. - Copyright 2018 Booklist.

School Library Journal - 07/01/2018 Gr 2–5—To celebrate what would have been Nelson Mandela's 100th birthday, his daughter and her grandchildren have crafted a short collection of straightforward questions about his life, imprisonment, and role in ending apartheid in South Africa. This child-friendly introduction to the topic of apartheid, with collage-style paintings and sketches by Qualls, demonstrates the simplification of momentous historical events and cultural concepts down to small and digestible kernels of truth. When readers meet Zazi and Ziwelene Mandela, they are playing at their grandmother's house. After stumbling across a photo of their famous great-grandfather they began to pepper their grandmother, who is his youngest daughter, with questions about his life, her own memories, and the historical and cultural context that preceded Mandela's presidency. She patiently responds to each question with heartfelt examples that help the children to connect their family's past to their present. Her references to jellied candies and cake, school days, volunteerism, and family life are illustrations that her grandchildren can readily connect to their own lives, and child readers are likely to do the same. By cleverly formatting the story as a conversation between two candid grandchildren and their elder, the Mandelas are able to present challenging topics with ingenuity and warmth. VERDICT Recommended for nonfiction collections.—Lauren Younger, Nicholson Memorial Library, Garland, TX - Copyright 2018 Publishers Weekly, Library Journal and/or School Library Journal used with permission.