Bound To Stay Bound

Other - 11/04/2024 A baseball-obsessed Japanese American 12-year-old relocates to help his grand- father and simultaneously unearths family history that mysteriously parallels a Japanese fairy tale in this stalwart novel by Brown (While I Was Away). Rick Kotani dreams of signing a $400 million contract with the MLB. His planned summer of nothing but baseball practice is derailed, however, when his mother informs him that they will be leaving Los Angeles for a sleepy Oregon town to assist Rick’s grandfather’s move into a retirement home. But Rick finds Grandpa to be great company, and the two bond over a folktale about Urashima Taro? , a Japanese fisherman who trades his humble life on land to live in luxury under the sea. As Grandpa tells the story, family secrets come to light, and Rick realizes the events parallel real-life happenings in both Grandpa’s and Rick’s lives. Rick also befriends kids on a local baseball team, whose competitive coach only cares about winning. Brown uses the mystical foundation of a dreamlike folktale as the backdrop upon which unpleasant realities surrounding Rick’s grandfather’s cognitive decline and generational trauma unfurl. Simple prose organically incorporates Japanese-language interjections and baseball lingo. Ages 8-12. (Feb.) - Copyright 2024

School Library Journal - 01/01/2025 Gr 5 Up—Rick Kotani has his summer all planned out: baseball, video games, and hanging out with friends. All of that changes with one phone call. Now Rick and his mom are headed to his grandpa's house in Oregon for the summer. With no friends and no baseball, Rick's hopes of having a great summer are quickly fading. But a chance encounter with Toni, a girl who knows her game, brings him back into the baseball world and a chance to make new friends. As the summer progresses, Rick realizes what real friends look like, and that baseball is not the end-all-be-all. The title of this book is slightly inaccurate. From the beginning, it sets it up to be all about baseball, but the sport takes a backseat at times to the other story lines. The author has created an arc that shows the two generations, Rick and his grandfather, building a relationship that had not existed previously. There is a cultural gap between the two, but the grandpa introduces a Japanese children's tale that bridges the distance. Readers may struggle with the pacing of this story. At times, the plot loses momentum. Secondary characters are not fully fleshed out, and some side stories have no resolutions. VERDICT A general purchase, likely for larger collections.—Heather Lassley - Copyright 2025 Publishers Weekly, Library Journal and/or School Library Journal used with permission.