Bound To Stay Bound

Booklist - 04/15/2020 Self-proclaimed animal expert Miranda Montgomery has honed her skills by watching the Nature Joe Animal Show every day. When she sees her teacher in the grocery store, Miranda is certain that Mrs. Birdley would be much happier in her natural habitat, the classroom. Miranda springs into action, constructing a pit trap, concocting a blueberry yogurt lure, and finally successfully capturing Mrs. Birdley inside a garbage can, which she then rolls down the street and into the school. Miranda is heartened by her success, until she spies the school principal looking at lawn mowers in the home improvement store. Aaron Reynolds' tongue-in-cheek text cleverly exploits the trope that educators have no life beyond the school. Emma Reynolds' digital illustrations highlight jungle green predominately, accented with neon purples, oranges, and yellows. Her cartoon-style characters feature prominent hair, button eyes, and expressive faces. Compositions are attractively varied, ranging from full-bleed spreads to single-page art and smaller, paneled illustrations. The text's use of terminology borrowed from nature videos (becoming aggressive and natural habitat) adds to the fun. - Copyright 2020 Booklist.

Booklist - 04/15/2020 - Copyright 2020 Booklist.

School Library Journal - 05/01/2020 PreS-Gr 1—Miranda Montgomery considers herself an animal expert—after all, she is a devotee of the "Nature Joe Animal Show" and has studied his techniques in detail. If there is one thing she has learned, it's that animals should always live in their natural habitat. Imagine Miranda's surprise and glee when she discovers one such animal outside its regular environment. Mrs. Birdley, Miranda's teacher, is at the grocery store when she clearly belongs in her classroom. Miranda is all systems go and after a few botched and very humorous capture attempts, she is able to secure Mrs. Birdley in a trash can and roll her back to school. Miranda then proceeds to lock her teacher in a classroom. However, there is no rest for young Miranda because the very next day she spies her principal at the hardware store. Well, what's an animal expert to do? VERDICT Reynolds, award-winning author of Creepy Carrots!, has delivered another gem and children will relish Miranda's outrageous traps and the poor unsuspecting adults who are snared in them. A definite purchase for all children's collections and an easy choice for a read-aloud.—Amy Nolan, St. Joseph Public Library, MI - Copyright 2020 Publishers Weekly, Library Journal and/or School Library Journal used with permission.