Bound To Stay Bound

Bulletin for the Center... - 03/01/2006 Once again out to play a trick on Farmer Brown, Duck and company wait until the farmer is napping on the couch, then covertly transport ten goldfish from his aquarium to the nearby shore, where they are joyfully released. Simultaneously a counting and a rhyming tale (“1 farmer sleeping./ 2 feet creeping./ 3 buckets piled high./ 4 chickens standing by”), Cronin and Lewin’s latest is aimed at a younger audience than previous barnyard adventures (see Click, Clack, Moo, BCCB 9/00, etc.). While the antics of Farmer Brown’s animals are generally welcome at storytime, this latest venture seems somewhat conflicted in its objectives; although the counting component points the book at younger children, a rather lofty jump in logic is required for little ones to piece together that the animals didn’t go fishing, as their note said, but released the fish; this plot point is presented somewhat abstractly in both the text and illustrations and may require assistance on the part of the adult reader. Fortunately, there is likely to be a second reading, and a third, and once the kids realize what they missed the first time, they will chuckle along with those in the know. The subtle plot encourages listeners to hone their predicting skills, as young listeners try to guess what the animals might be doing with the buckets. Lewin’s watercolor illustrations are especially wet and large-scale in this story; close-up perspectives give viewers an intimate view of the cows, the goldfish, and, ultimately, poor Farmer Brown confusedly peering through his empty aquarium. - Copyright 2006 The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois.

School Library Journal - 01/01/2006 PreS-K-Some familiar faces from Cronin and Lewin's well-known series that began with Click, Clack, Moo (S & S, 2000) appear in this clever adventure. The farmyard crew is engineering a "fishy" rescue of sorts, releasing 10 fish in 10 buckets while the farmer slumbers. As the animals make their mischief, numbers from 1 to 10 are introduced, beginning with "1 farmer sleeping. 2 feet creeping." The cartoon illustrations have the same great appeal as the previous books and combine successfully with this very basic introduction to numeric concepts. A great tool for parents and teachers seeking to make learning fun.-Rosalyn Pierini, San Luis Obispo City-County Library, CA Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information. - Copyright 2006 Publishers Weekly, Library Journal and/or School Library Journal used with permission.

Booklist - 01/01/2006 The team that created the Caldecott Honor Book Click, Clack, Moo: Cows That Type (2000) and the recent Click, Clack, Quackity-Quack: An Alphabet Adventure (2005) offers another rambunctious farmyard farce. This one plays with numbers, offering not only a simple, interactive counting rhyme but also a trickster story with a real surprise. From 1 farmer sleeping, two feet creeping, six goats load the boat, and so on until 10 fish ready to go, the cumulative verse and wild, thick-lined cartoon artwork follow the progress of the animals as they ready themselves for a secret fishing expedition. Preschoolers may need help processing some of the scenarios, including the ending (particularly if they failed to notice the aquarium in the first picture). Most, however, will enjoy the counting exercise as well as the suspense of the story, and they'll want to go back to the beginning to see what they missed. What fish? Gone where? - Copyright 2006 Booklist.