Bound To Stay Bound

School Library Journal - 11/01/2018 Gr 2–5—In this guide to a beaver's "superpowers," a nameless woman identifies and explains what is remarkable about beavers, as exemplified by a fictional pair she calls Elmer and Irma. The narrator introduces each superpower, or trait, by describing it as a special ability, then explaining how it works. Text boxes and quizzes are interspersed throughout and add a bit of fun. The illustrations, which have a vintage look to them, alternate between comic depictions of rodents and more detailed diagrams that identify different physical features of beavers and their habitats. The text is clear and friendly, though it occasionally tries too hard to be cute. The book's usefulness for students is hampered by the lack of a table of contents but it is helped by a clear glossary and a detailed further reading section. VERDICT Though it might take some hand selling, this is a serviceable addition to most libraries.—Sheri Reda, Wilmette Public Library, IL - Copyright 2018 Publishers Weekly, Library Journal and/or School Library Journal used with permission.

Booklist - 11/01/2018 *Starred Review* This first in the projected The Superpower Field Guide series, about the natural world’s resident superheroes, offers effervescent examinations of a beaver’s super characteristics, from “chainsaw teeth” to “ever-toiling tail” (not to mention those posterior castor sacs filled with a “turbocharged superstink” used for territorial marking). Poliquin explains in simple but exact language how these “wetland warriors” chew down trees, build dams and lodges, exhibit “indubitable deluge domination” to survive both floods and droughts, and most awesome of all, function as a keystone species to create entire new ecosystems. She also covers in quick strokes the devastating effects of the historical fur trade and clever ways modern naturalists have found to control beavers’ more destructive tendencies, and, in the upside-down answers to several, not-always-serious pop quizzes (True or false: “Giant prehistoric beavers built the Egyptian pyramids”), elaborates on other related topics. Frith’s very simple freestyle illustrations operate mostly as a complementary sidepiece to the truly excellent text, but they add both visual detail and further lighthearted notes. Eager beavers who likewise find these redoubtable rodents “utterly gobsmackable!” will find a chewy array of print and web resources to sink their teeth into at the end. - Copyright 2018 Booklist.