Bound To Stay Bound

School Library Journal - 10/28/2022 Gr 1–3—This whimsical early reader comic will delight a young audience and give them a few science tidbits on the way. Rover is deposited on a planet to explore, but immediately is hampered by a broken antenna, which means he won't be able to call home when he is ready to move on. While trying to find a way to fix the antenna, he happens onto an older model rover that has been covered and is out of solar power. He revives the robot, and the two bots become friends, exploring the planet together, only to meet up with huge rock monsters. The narration breaks every so often to sprinkle in a scientific fact, but this doesn't hinder the flow of the story, which is laden with humor and just enough suspense for the target audience. The artwork uses vibrant colors and simple geometric shapes that give an overall vibe of simplicity. VERDICT Libraries needing early reader comics will surely want to add this to their collection.—Esther Keller - Copyright 2022 Publishers Weekly, Library Journal and/or School Library Journal used with permission.

Booklist - 11/01/2022 When landing on a new planet, Rover’s antenna is damaged by a meteoroid, leaving it no way of alerting its rocket ship when it’s ready to leave. Exploring in the meantime, it discovers and reboots another rover named S.P.E.C.K., who tags along on the mission. They stumble upon a group of seemingly vicious giant rock monsters but soon discover that their leader, Rocky, is actually a gentle artist and musician. Together, the rock monsters help Speck and Rover contact their ship, and soon they’re off on another planetary adventure. The silliness of the plot belies the massive and impressive bulk of advanced scientific facts relayed within, including how minerals inform technology, how to measure in microseconds, how to recognize an alpha particle x-ray spectrometer and radiation detector, and the infrastructure of space caves on Mars. And while certainly not every child will gravitate to books with language about a “crystalline mineral composed primarily of silicon dioxide,” space-loving readers will feel right at home with the adorable, digitally rendered rovers, and the graphic-novel format with its planet’s sunset rose-and-rust palette is pleasing to the eye. - Copyright 2022 Booklist.

Booklist - 11/01/2022 When landing on a new planet, Rover’s antenna is damaged by a meteoroid, leaving it no way of alerting its rocket ship when it’s ready to leave. Exploring in the meantime, it discovers and reboots another rover named S.P.E.C.K., who tags along on the mission. They stumble upon a group of seemingly vicious giant rock monsters but soon discover that their leader, Rocky, is actually a gentle artist and musician. Together, the rock monsters help Speck and Rover contact their ship, and soon they’re off on another planetary adventure. The silliness of the plot belies the massive and impressive bulk of advanced scientific facts relayed within, including how minerals inform technology, how to measure in microseconds, how to recognize an alpha particle x-ray spectrometer and radiation detector, and the infrastructure of space caves on Mars. And while certainly not every child will gravitate to books with language about a “crystalline mineral composed primarily of silicon dioxide,” space-loving readers will feel right at home with the adorable, digitally rendered rovers, and the graphic-novel format with its planet’s sunset rose-and-rust palette is pleasing to the eye. - Copyright 2022 Booklist.