Bound To Stay Bound

Booklist - 11/01/2021 While on a seventh-grade class field trip, students are paired off to work on researching a local mystery from the late 1800s involving a hidden treasure. Popular Sloane is dismayed to learn that her partner in crime solving will be unconventional Amelia (aka the Yeti). And Amelia is equally unhappy to be paired with “Miss Perfect.” It was Sloane who initially referred to her as the Yeti, and Sloane would like to apologize to Amelia for that . . . but she can’t quite bring herself to do it. Gradually, their prickly relationship mellows to a tentative alliance that holds the promise of friendship. After all, there’s nothing like facing a slingshot attack in an abandoned cemetery to help a girl clarify who her real friends are. Is someone using this detective duo to unravel the clues in hopes of collecting the treasure? Although many of the characters (however colorful) seem to be quickly sketched, both Sloane and Amelia are more fully portrayed, emerging as interesting individuals, each struggling with her own issues but willing to give the other a chance. - Copyright 2021 Booklist.

School Library Journal - 01/14/2022 Gr 5–7—Familiar themes of adolescent angst, mean-girl shenanigans, budding friendship, and the loss of a parent thread through a complex mystery. Dramatic, flamboyant Amelia Miller-Poe feels like a misfit in her perfect family; volleyball star Sloane Osburn misses her deceased mother and feels uncomfortable in the sports crowd. Both are unlikely partners in a seventh grade assignment to discover the location of jewels missing for 130 years from an estate in their Ohio town. Their research leads them to an old mansion, now a bed-and-breakfast, and the discovery of clues about two feuding families whose descendants are seemingly long gone. Working together, at first reluctantly, the girls form a tentative bond that must withstand interference from a classmate looking to sabotage their fragile friendship and exploit their work in completing the assignment. Lurking behind it all is an unidentified, menacing character who ultimately confronts the girls just as they are about to find the jewels. An included cast of characters at the beginning of the book is necessary to keep straight the multigenerational players in the mystery, and the ending suggests the possibility of a sequel or series. Amelia and Sloane are both cued as white. VERDICT An unlikely premise that nevertheless conveys a positive message about loyalty, belonging, and friendship.—Marie Orlando - Copyright 2022 Publishers Weekly, Library Journal and/or School Library Journal used with permission.