Bound To Stay Bound

Other - 05/12/2025 Sweet dreams replace would-be nightmares in this surrealistically reassuring bedtime book. Narrated from a pale-skinned, dark-haired child’s point of view, first-person rhymes request "just one more book" as a defense against bad dreams. The child also wills positive, sometimes absurdist alternatives: "Tonight I won’t have nightmares./ No bad dreams for me.// Instead, I’m going to dream about// a hippo sipping tea." Deng fully realizes Ruhl’s poetic nighttime visions with flowing, curvaceous markings and gentle, paper-texturized coloring. Verse and visuals alike reach their otherworldly pinnacle in a spread capturing "a dream inside a dream," where the subject mingles with East Asian-cued imagery of koi fish, a bowl of noodles, cherry blossoms, and more. As concluding moments center on the predictable comfort to be found in a child-caregiver relationship, a final prompt urges readers to express their own dream-time wishes. Ages 4-8. (July) - Copyright 2025