Bound To Stay Bound

School Library Journal - 02/01/2020 K-Gr 3—Despite how much humans feel they control the world, Wind, Rain, and Sun will always be the Earth's primary powers. One day, Wind, Rain, and Sun observe a shepherd sleeping on a hill with her sheep. For fun, Wind bets the others that it can make her lose her cap. It tries blasting her with a gale so strong she has to hold on to keep from flying away, but her cap stays on. Next, Rain attempts to soak her hat off, but this is likewise unsuccessful. Finally, Sun emerges from behind the clouds to bathe the Earth in its warm glow, trying its hand at removing the cap. The heat of the sun finally wears the shepherd down, but she knows in her heart who the winner truly is. This retelling of "The Wind and the Sun" is both lyrical and profound, using select, spare language to tell the story. Rhyming phrases are pleasing to the ear, but the complexity of the story's message goes deeper than the text itself. Young's illustrations are striking, composed of paper collage and occasionally shifting orientation to add to their dynamic quality. The text is superimposed expertly upon the images, making them function as one and the same. Additionally, Chinese character representations of Wind, Rain, and Sun appear throughout the book as their powers are mentioned. VERDICT Elementary school classrooms seeking another approach to Earth Day will appreciate the mysterious beauty within the pages of this book.—Mary Lanni, formerly at Denver Public Library - Copyright 2020 Publishers Weekly, Library Journal and/or School Library Journal used with permission.

Booklist - 03/01/2020 *Starred Review* It’s a simple story, this reimagining of the classic Aesop’s fable The Wind and the Sun. It tells how three mighty powers—the Wind, the Rain, and the Sun—come upon a sleeping shepherd girl surrounded by her flock of sheep, and decide to wager which one can make the girl take off her cap. Both the howling wind and the relentless rain fail, but then the sun comes out, and the laughing girl, now warm, takes her cap off. The sun has won, but the girl, contemplating the newly green landscape around her, realizes that it is actually the earth that has won. Cowan’s rhyming text is simple and straightforward, a nice counterpoint to Caldecott Medalist Young’s often abstract mixed-media collage illustrations that beautifully imagine the form and shapes of the three powers—from dazzling-white, almost spectral images to warm orange backgrounds cast by the sun. In a prefatory note, Young explains that, in troubled times, “our endangered, vulnerable planet must be sustained by respect.” This beautiful book honors that imperative. - Copyright 2020 Booklist.