Bound To Stay Bound

School Library Journal - 02/01/2015 Gr 1–5—The brevity and poignancy of the haiku format perfectly capture the feline essence in this book of verse. Each spread defines an individual breed, some familiar and others less so, with a deft haiku and an inviting illustration about a brief moment. "American Shorthair" ("outside the old store/more strays sun as the screen door/bangs—bangs shut, again") depicts a slow, warm scene evoking senses of touch, sight, and sound, while "Turkish Angora" ("whooshing down the hall:/Angora, then her all-white/dust devil of hair") creates the feeling of speed and energy, with an image of a blur of white cat leaving fur balls in her wake. With rich colors and detailed, scratchy lines, each illustration uses clever page layouts and line work to convey movement or stillness as the featured cats dictate. Broken into alternating sections of "Inside" and "Outside," the book evokes the mood of the indecisive cat who always wants in—and, just as quickly—back out again. The volume concludes with back matter that provides a little more concrete information about each breed. Fans of the author's other collections, The Cuckoo's Haiku: And Other Birding Poems (2009) and The Hound Dog's Haiku: And Other Poems for Dog Lovers (2011, both Candlewick), will lap this one right up. VERDICT This attractive, delightful volume will enchant cat lovers and is a great selection for those who want to inject some life into their poetry collections.—Julie Roach, Cambridge Public Library, MA - Copyright 2015 Publishers Weekly, Library Journal and/or School Library Journal used with permission.

Booklist - 03/15/2015 Clearly a keen observer of cats, Rosen offers 20 haiku, each spotlighting a different breed of cats and often reflecting its traits. In 10 poems, cats explore the world outdoors, while the rest capture cats during indoor moments. The verse “Norwegian Forest Cat” reads, “caught among branches / fog descends the trunk headfirst / one foot at a time.” In “Balinese,” a girl pours dry food into her cat’s bowl, while nearby “on the windowsill’s / balance beam, the cat pirouettes / as the kibble pings.” The subtitle will guide cat-lovers to this pleasing poetry book, but what’s a Maine coon? According to Rosen’s appended notes on 20 cat breeds, this gentle giant of a feline was “the first long-haired cat to arise naturally in the United States.” Often clarifying and enhancing the verse for young readers, White’s digital illustrations combine a sense of spontaneity in line work with strong composition and interesting textures. A worthy companion to Rosen’s The Hound Dog’s Haiku and Other Poems for Dog Lovers (2011). - Copyright 2015 Booklist.

Bulletin for the Center... - 05/01/2015 There’s something about cats and haiku that just seems to go together, as noted poet Rosen demonstrates in this collection of twenty poems in haiku form, each treating a different breed of cat. Some of the subject breeds will be familiar (the Siamese with her “toppled lamp shade”) while others may be new to readers (the Havana Brown, awakened poolside by being dripped on); many of the entries, however, are fairly randomly assigned to breeds, since they’re describing pretty common cat experiences (the Abyssinian “curled up on your book,” for instance, or the Bombay’s nighttime gaze, “two lights/ pierce that darkness”). The haiku are still delicately engaging, though, with their concise evocations of cat behavior and vignettes of playful or somnolent felines. Full-bleed spreads of digital art have an old-school flavor, with the feline figures rustically homemade and the scratchy linework and grainy dappled textures suggesting paint; though slatey blues and golden greens predominate, each spread has its own palette, and tones and compositions vary effectively as the pages progress. This offers plenty of appealing curricular opportunities, and it will please feline fans looking to move up from Nancy Larrick’s classic Cats Are Cats (BCCB 1/89). Though there is no table of contents or index, four section headers identify the verses within; end matter provides more detailed description of each featured breed. DS - Copyright 2015 The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois.