Bound To Stay Bound

School Library Journal - 06/01/2008 Gr 5-8-This book picks up where The Way a Door Closes (Holt, 2003) left off. Now that C.J.'s father, who had left the family, has returned, the teen notes that dinners are like "a roomful of strangers" and that he feels weighed down by "brick heavy" questions. Wise beyond his years, eldest son C.J. felt it was his role to "keep the night watch" during his father's absence. Now, he feels displaced in his own home and seethes with anger and resentment. Gradually, everyone starts to move on: C.J. experiences the awkward elation of first love, tries his hand at shaving, and argues and makes up with his best friend. His little sister sends love notes to each family member, and, at book's end, C.J. and his family come together: "We dance on our tears." As in the previous book, Smith masterfully brings her characters to life from the inside out in straightforward free verse. Lewis uses his brilliantly composed, watercolor-and-ink paintings to underscore the strong emotions of the text. This hopeful book celebrates the power of families to heal and overcome hard times. It will speak to the hearts of many readers.-Marilyn Taniguchi, Beverly Hills Public Library, CA Copyright 2008 Reed Business Information. - Copyright 2008 Publishers Weekly, Library Journal and/or School Library Journal used with permission.

Bulletin for the Center... - 06/01/2008 “This is a mess,” says thirteen-year-old C. J., as he cleans up after a family dinner strained with the politeness of too much left unsaid—too many hurts, too many hopes—to which his patient and watchful grandmother responds, “No, this is a family.” C. J.’s family wasn’t always a mess, but when his daddy lost his job and walked out in The Way a Door Closes (BCCB 5/03), C. J. learned through bitter experience that his father wasn’t the sure thing C. J. had always depended on him to be. C. J. stepped into the shoes of a man that year, and now that Daddy is back, the boy isn’t quite sure where he fits in their reunited family. The rest of the family—Momma, Grandmomma, and younger siblings Byron and Zuri—all seem to have forgiven their father for his desertion; they welcome him back with smiles, pick-up games of basketball, and bedtime stories, but underneath their acceptance, C. J. senses their unspoken fears and magnifies them with his anger. The unanswered questions about why Daddy left their happy family have left lingering distrust that is evident in Momma’s “painted-on smile,” C. J.’s anger, and Zuri’s anx-ious clinging. Zuri, in fact, is pivotal to helping C. J. and the rest of the family vocalize their pain, first through her play-acting, then through sleeping at the door so that her daddy can’t leave in the night, and finally through an acrostic poem based on the alphabet that functions as a direct plea for her family to start talking to each other. By that time, however, C. J.’s heart has already been softened by a budding romance of his own that makes him feel tender and forgiving toward the difficulties inherent in emotional matters. Smith tells a story ragged in its truth but ultimately suffused with hope and forgiveness. Deployed in a range of poetic styles, her metaphors make emotions concrete and visible, opening up curricular possibilities for the study of figurative language, symbolism, and poetic form. “Seven Ways of Looking at My Father,” for instance, explores seven expanded metaphors that express C. J.’s frustration over his father’s tenuous and uncertain place in his life. “Maya’s Sonnet” opens up that rather lofty form of poetry in a way that is accessible and rele-vant to young readers’ own experience in its simplicity and everyday language. These and other poems make traditional forms of poetry available to nascent literary critics and writers, but Smith brings even more to the curricular banquet as her work provides an effective intro-duction to many of the characteristics that recur in African-American literature. Rhythmic, evocative language with rich dramatic overtones characterize C. J.’s reflections on his situation, Grandmomma, Daddy, and Momma rely on aphorisms and proverbs to move C. J. in the di-rections they wish, and his friend Preacher has earned his name by his sermonic evocations of black church rhetoric. The final poem brings together the culturally embedded values of intergenerational family ties, dance, and faith that often characterize the celebration of black family life. Lewis’ achingly sensitive watercolors play no small part in conveying Smith’s tone and message throughout the book. Alternating between tight realism and illustrated metaphors, the illustrations cap-ture both outward challenges and inner states of mind as they show an angry boy nose to nose with a father who can’t back down, or that same boy bearing the weight of a wheelbarrow full of question marks. The draftsmanship is subdued and quiet, with tonal resonances played out as much in perspective as in subject matter. Taken to-gether, the poems and their illustrations will encourage multimodal response; here is a lovely melding of accessible beauty, hard truth, and aesthetic inspiration for young readers and budding writers. (See p. 443 for publication information.) - Copyright 2008 The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois.

Booklist - 03/15/2008 *Starred Review* Smith’s The Way a Door Closes (2003), illustrated by Shane Evans, ends when Daddy returns home after leaving his family. In this sequel (with art by Lewis), 13-year-old C. J. struggles with his anger, pain, and sense of betrayal, unable to forgive Daddy, scared to hope or let his feelings show. The words are simple (“Am I safe? Will you stay?”), and the beautiful watercolor pictures of the African American family have the same quiet intensity as pictures in the first book, whether they depict the standoffs between characters or the seething teen all alone. Daddy says he’s sorry, but  can C. J. hear him? Gradually, as things get better, the scene shifts to C. J. having fun with his friend and his crush on a classmate, but at the core is family: “Momma wears a painted-on smile that says everything is okay, now,” but the portrait shows her stress as well as her strength. Although mainly free verse, there’s also a sonnet, and in one chatty 26-line piece, each line begins with a different letter of the alphabet, arranged in successive order. Unlike the first book, there’s nothing idyllic here, even in the stirring climax, in which C. J. surprises everyone, including himself. - Copyright 2008 Booklist.

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