Bound To Stay Bound

School Library Journal - 04/01/2014 PreS-Gr 2—Sylvester and Arnold, the titular crocs, are bullies who each rule part of the swamp. When their paths cross, they are ready to fight—until Betty, an even bigger bully, comes along and scares them both. In their attempts to flee, they inadvertently join forces and scare her off. The colorful cartoon illustrations match the rough-and-tumble sensibility of the text. If the resolution is a bit pat, it also emphasizes that the world cannot be divided into bullies and victims and that every individual has the capacity to change.—Kathleen Kelly MacMillan, Carroll County Public Library, MD - Copyright 2014 Publishers Weekly, Library Journal and/or School Library Journal used with permission.

Booklist - 04/15/2014 Sylvester and Arnold are crocodile bullies with much in common. They both are large, disgruntled, and mean to the smaller animals that live near the swamp. The two potential foes meet by accident when they literally run into each other one day. Since each wants to be the scariest croc in the swamp, they begin to fight until an even bigger crocodile appears. “I’m called Betty,” she roars. “Betty the Bad!” How the two adversaries work together, though unintentionally, to save themselves from Betty—and also save face—makes for an animated read-aloud. Children will enjoy how Sylvester, Arnold, and Betty all get a deserved comeuppance and take note of the fact that there’s always a bigger and badder bully out there, so it makes sense to acquire friends instead of enemies. Pair this with Keiko Kasza’s The Rat and the Tiger (2007) for another entertaining tale of bullying, rude awakenings, and friendship. - Copyright 2014 Booklist.

Bulletin for the Center... - 06/01/2014 Crocodiles Sylvester and Arnold each feel like they run the swamp, gnashing their teeth and intimidating the smaller animals. When they finally meet, they try to scare each other-until an even more enormous crocodile, Betty the Bad, boots them right into a muddy pit. The frightened pair decide to sneak off to a safer swamp together under the guise of night, and when Betty spots them and mistakes them for a two-headed, two-tailed, many-toothed monster, she panics and winds up in the swampy hole herself. A reformed Sylvester generously offers a helping hand, and the three have learned their lesson about being mean. Grainy and mottled panels of swampy colors fill roughly textured but detailed outlines in this Australian import, and there’s a pleasing rhythm in the layout, which varies between spreads and spot art. The crocodiles similarly blend silly and scary with their seriously sharp claws but bug-eyed expressions and approachable outfits, and the terrorized marsupials are adorable with boxy builds and simple expressions. There’s a gleeful compactness in the setup (“Sylvester was a big, tough croc. So was Arnold”) and the story is pleasingly humorous. Although the foes-to-friends transformation is a bit abrupt, young audiences might find Betty’s comeuppance and subsequent forgiveness appealing; this could be an empathetic pairing with Pizzoli’s The Watermelon Seed (BCCB 6/13) or another croc-focused picture book for a wonderfully reptilian storytime. TA - Copyright 2014 The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois.