Bound To Stay Bound

Booklist - 12/15/2015 Jennifer Holm, Matthew Holm, and Jarrett J. Krosoczka have rallied a heaping serving of comics greats for this collection of minicomics about lunchtime. Cece Bell kicks off the volume with a funny story about a little girl whose nut allergy might lead to true love. Fan-favorite Babymouse channels Robin Hood in a battle over a table in the lunchroom, but will her love of cupcakes ruin her scheme? Nathan Hale recruits characters from his acclaimed Nathan Hale’s Hazardous Tales series to recount the true story of WWII sailors who fought off a Japanese sub with potatoes. Jason Shiga offers a choose-your-own-adventure time-travel mystery in an ingenious format. The other entries are just as entertaining, and the cheery yellow palette coloring each artist’s signature style makes for a welcoming through line. With so many familiar names, it will be a piece of cake to get this collection into little hands, and while they are perusing their favorites, they might find some new ones. - Copyright 2015 Booklist.

School Library Journal - 02/01/2016 Gr 2–5—Once again a veritable who's who of children's cartoonists assemble to offer up a collection of short comics around a theme. This second anthology presents stories that share the common thread of lunch, although the context in each tale varies a great deal, from the gross to the unexpected, the historic, and even the prehistoric. Familiar characters such as Jarrett Krosoczka's Lunch Lady, Jennifer and Matt Holm's Babymouse, and even Peanuts' Snoopy appear in original stories that will satisfy fans of the referenced source material. Jeffrey Brown's "Cave Soup" kicks off a new comics series from the creator of "Jedi Academy" that blends humor and historical evidence into a story about a Neanderthal family. Class rivals find common ground over scientific lunchroom experiments in Cecil Castellucci and Sara Varon's "Worst Day Ever." Two particularly strong stories are Nathan Hale's "Lunch Bomb 1943" and Jason Shiga's "The Case of the Missing Science Project." The former recounts a historical event from World War II, in which the crew on a U.S. destroyer successfully defended themselves and the ship from a Japanese submarine by attacking the sub with a barrage of raw potatoes. Shiga takes the "Choose Your Own Adventure"-style comic storytelling that earned him praise in Meanwhile (Abrams, 2010) and adds the element of time travel in "Missing Science Project." The unfamiliar mechanics of Shiga's comic may baffle some, but the payoff is unlike anything this reader has experienced in a story prior. VERDICT Overall, this anthology offers up a lot of strong selections with tons of appeal.—Matthew C. Winner, Ducketts Lane Elementary School, Elkridge, MD - Copyright 2016 Publishers Weekly, Library Journal and/or School Library Journal used with permission.