Bound To Stay Bound

Booklist - 02/15/2023 *Starred Review* With Caldecott Medalist Goade as illustrator, recent U.S. Poet Laureate Harjo’s acclaimed poem becomes a beauty to behold. In spare, direct verse, Harjo, a member of the Mvskoke Nation, encourages readers to look to the universe, their own beginning within it, and the interconnectedness of all its creatures. The softened watercolor-and-mixed-media illustrations, drawing on Goade’s Tlingit culture, begin with a luminous eagle soaring through the cosmos until it reaches the edges of the earth. In a blend of time and space, a Native American girl is born. She becomes part of a continuing journey across the earth, among the land, the seas, the mountains, and the forests, and along with the Earth’s plants and animals, her family, and her ancestors. Each spread features only a sentence or two, allowing readers to pause and reflect upon the text’s significance and the illustrations’ details. Symbols in one image often carry over and lend significance to others, such as the girl’s small hand forming roots, which lead through the soil to a larger soil-like hand in bloom. The illustrations end full circle with the universe reflected in the girl’s eyes and a colorful culmination of repeated imagery as the girl admires the eagle continuing its path. A rich and reverential tribute to life, family, and poetry. - Copyright 2023 Booklist.

School Library Journal - 04/01/2023 PreS-Gr 3—As the modern world propels forward at a breakneck pace, the complexities of the universe can be easily forgotten. Every living creature is beholden to the cycles of nature—day and night, birth and death, growth and decay. Harjo, a member of the Mvskoke Nation and the U.S. Poet Laureate, urges young readers to remember that they are of the earth, both indebted to and intertwined with the natural world. In an economy of perfectly chosen words, Harjo conveys the ancient Indigenous reverence for nature and the passage of time. Caldecott winner and Tlingit tribe member Goade interprets the text in otherworldly watercolor illustrations that are nothing short of a masterclass in visual storytelling. Each scene incorporates icons of Northwest Coast art rendered with beautifully graduated color. Goade and Harjo's creative synergy produces an important cultural artifact and testimonial to their Native heritage. VERDICT A significant work of children's literature, this paean to nature and Indigenous culture belongs in every school and public library collection for years to come.—Sarah Simpson - Copyright 2023 Publishers Weekly, Library Journal and/or School Library Journal used with permission.