Bound To Stay Bound

School Library Journal - 11/01/2019 PreS-Gr 2—A decrepit clock tower stands abandoned and moldering. "Rats are nesting on the beams./Bats are resting in the seams./Time is rusted in the gears,/frozen fast for years and years." Then, with pep in their step, a diverse three-person construction crew arrives to repair the tower "marching up the ramp…Tramp! Tramp! Tramp!" Starting at the bottom where even the stairs are unsalvageable, the team fixes the structure from the ground up, dislodging various resident critters in the process. Once they restore the clock mechanism, they build little houses on the sides of the tower for the rats, mice, bats, and birds displaced by the construction. Cyrus's radiantly sunlit spreads show the energetic scenes of demolition and rebuilding, his assiduous laborers in their colorful overalls and hard hats, wielding many tools that young readers can discover and name. VERDICT Cheerful illustrations perfectly complement the bouncy, catchy verse that just begs to be read aloud. A terrific addition to most collections and storytimes.—Yelena Voysey, formerly at Pickering Educational Library, Boston University - Copyright 2019 Publishers Weekly, Library Journal and/or School Library Journal used with permission.

Booklist - 12/01/2019 Picture-book veteran Cyrus is back with a rhyming tale about an old clock tower that has fallen into disrepair. Readers see the clock’s resident birds and mice nestled among rusted gears and rotting wood before a diverse trio of construction workers (two men and a woman) arrives. Their repairs are relayed in rhythmic rhyme, loosely following the beat of “Three Blind Mice.” First they need to fix the stairs that have been wrapped in vines and cracked with age. Kids will enjoy the refrains of “Tramp! Tramp! Tramp!” and “Creak—Crack—Crash!”, but all this noise flushes out the creatures living in the clock. The mice scurry out and the birds and bats flap away as the workers add windows, oil gears, and touch up the clock face. Finally, the clock chimes loudly (“Bong! Bong! Bong!”), and it’s time for the workers to go home—but not before adding some special wooden homes for the clock tower's animals. Colorful full-page illustrations dynamically show the clock tower from all angles, and the text’s rhythm and repetition gives the story great read-aloud potential. - Copyright 2019 Booklist.