Bound To Stay Bound

School Library Journal - 12/01/2011 K-Gr 3—In a snow- and soot-covered town, Annabelle discovers a small black box filled with colorful yarn. She knits a sweater for herself, but there's still yarn left over. From the seemingly inexhaustible supply, she knits sweaters for her dog, a boy and his dog, her classmates, her mean teacher, her parents, and people in town. In an astounding feat of urban knitting, she covers the buildings in sweatery goodness, but the yarn does not run out. Disaster strikes when a mustachioed, piratical archduke arrives, demanding that the child sell him the magic box. When she declines, he steals it but does not benefit from his crime, as he finds it empty. In a fit of rage, the archduke curses Annabelle and flings the box into the sea. Happily, it finds its way back to her full of yarn again. Klassen's deadpan, stylized illustrations impeccably complement Barnett's quirky droll writing. Small details like a dog's sneer or sweater-covered mailboxes add to the subtle humor. The cheerful colors of the yarn contrast with the somber grays and blacks of the town. Give this one to fans of offbeat stories like Florence Heide's Princess Hyacinth: (The Surprising Story of a Girl Who Floated) (Random, 2009) or to young knitting enthusiasts.—Yelena Alekseyeva-Popova, Chappaqua Library, NY - Copyright 2011 Publishers Weekly, Library Journal and/or School Library Journal used with permission.

Bulletin for the Center... - 01/01/2012 When happenstance delivers Annabelle a “box filled with yarn of every color,” she fashions herself a nice sweater. When there’s yarn left over, she then creates a garment for her dog, Mars; as she continues to find ways to use the wonderful yarn (“She made sweaters for all the dogs, and all the cats, and for other animals, too”), she’s always left with extra yarn for new projects. But what will happen when a wealthy visiting archduke covets Annabelle’s magical yarn? The ending is a little low-impact (Annabelle gets her box back from the thieving archduke and continues to knit), but there’s plenty of appeal in the quietly matter-of-fact yet humorous tone (“So Annabelle made sweaters for things that didn’t even wear sweaters”) and in the folkloric premise, which is reminiscent of stories ranging from the Hanukkah miracle to Gilman’s Something from Nothing (BCCB 2/94). Klassen’s art, however, really steals the show. The sharply edged figures with slyly comic, slightly skewed geometry recall his work in I Want My Hat Back (BCCB 9/11); the bleak wintry landscape is virtually monochromatic, with almost everything-kids, houses, pets-shades of a murky brown against the snow, save for Annabelle’s varicolored creations (and a touch of pink in chilled cheeks and noses). The knitted elements are cleverly printed in a stockinette-style pattern, their colors subtly varying as the yarn unspools. Slide this into a winter or folklore unit, or just use it to introduce the craft of knitting and let kids hope for magic. DS - Copyright 2012 The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois.

Booklist - 12/15/2011 *Starred Review* This understated picture book is certain to spark the imagination of every child who comes upon it, and what could be better than that? Annabelle lives in a black-and-white world, where everything is drab, drab, drab. So imagine her surprise when she finds a box filled with yarn of every color. Armed with the yarn and knitting needles, she makes herself a sweater, but after she finishes, she finds that she has extra yarn left over. After knitting a sweater for her dog, her classmates, and various (hilariously unsurprised) bunnies and bears, she still has extra yarn. So, Annabelle turns her attention to things that don’t usually wear wool cozies: houses and cars and mailboxes. Soon an evil archduke with a sinister mustache “who was very fond of clothes” hears about the magic box of never-ending yarn, and he wants it for his own. Reading like a droll fairy tale, this Barnett-Klassen collaboration is both seamless and magical. The spare, elegant text and art are also infused with plenty of deadpan humor. Klassen (I Want My Hat Back, 2011) uses ink, gouache, and digital illustration to fashion Annabelle’s world out of geometric shapes, set against dark, saturated pages, and against white as the town comes to colorful, stitched life. Quirky and wonderful, this story quietly celebrates a child’s ingenuity and her ability to change the world around her. - Copyright 2011 Booklist.