Bound To Stay Bound

School Library Journal - 08/01/2011 Gr 1–3—Readers may be too young to know Nixon's famous line, "I am not a crook," but they'll surely figure out that someone here is not telling the truth. Bear has lost his hat and asks various creatures if they have seen it, with pronounced civility. Snake goes offtrack (and will also throw inattentive listeners offtrack) by announcing he's seen a blue and round hat. Rabbit vigorously denies having seen anything like it, despite evidence to the contrary. Armadillo asks, "What is a hat?" Bear is flung into despair until a young deer asks, "What does your hat look like?" Bear starts to describe it and immediately realizes he has seen it. The following page is painted red with anger. Readers realize they have seen it, too! Bear confronts the culprit and what happens next is a matter of interpretation. Violence is implied, but only indirectly. The Chinese ink illustrations are understated and stylized, and the pages are a natural sandy hue throughout. The dialogue is not in quotations but in contrasting colors. Wisps of grass, rocks, small branches, and specks of dirt compose the setting. Read aloud, this story will offer many sublime insights into how young readers comprehend an illustrated text that leaves out vital information, and will leave young sleuths reeling with theories about what just happened.—Sara Lissa Paulson, American Sign Language and English Lower School PS 347, New York City - Copyright 2011 Publishers Weekly, Library Journal and/or School Library Journal used with permission.

Bulletin for the Center... - 11/01/2011 “My hat is gone. I want it back,” says the determined bear narrator. As he questions various animals as to his hat’s whereabouts, tuned-in viewers will rightfully suspect the rabbit, wearing a red triangular object on his head, who “doth protest too much”: “No. Why are you asking me. I haven’t seen it. I haven’t seen any hats anywhere. I would not steal a hat.” Finally, as the despairing bear describes his missing hat to a deer, he realizes that he has seen his hat-on the rabbit. Back he goes to claim it. When he’s later approached by a squirrel in search of the rabbit, he echoes the rabbit’s false denials: “I haven’t seen any rabbits anywhere. I would not eat a rabbit. Don’t ask me any more questions.” This is a familiar picture-book formula (think Eric Carle’s Have You Seen My Cat?) with a twist, and the minimalist style Klassen employs with both text and art (a combination of digital illustration and Chinese ink) only emphasizes the humor of the situation. The large, textured brown bear looms on each mostly blank, creamy page as he politely interrogates different smaller creatures. His emotions are effectively conveyed not by his expression but by his stance (upright when questioning, horizontal when despondent, in mid-stride when he is trying to find the rabbit), by the use of all capitals when he is upset, and by color (on the page in which he realizes where he has seen his missing hat, his creamy background is replaced with a brilliant red). The large-font text appears against a stark white background; the bear’s dialogue is printed in black while the responses of the various animals are printed in colors that match their own coloring. While these design choices and the simplicity and pattern of the text would make this a good choice for beginning readers, it would also make an amusing readaloud or a great little readers’ theater piece. JH - Copyright 2011 The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois.

Booklist - 11/01/2011 Klassen, who illustrated Caroline Stutson’s Cats’ Night Out (2010), pens his first story in this odd, and oddly charming, picture book. A bummed-out bear asks if other animals have seen his lost hat. The fox knows nothing. Neither does the frog. Or the rabbit who is wearing a pointy red hat. No luck with the turtle, snake, or armadillo either. Kids will probably be squirming in their seats at this point, just dying to tell the bear what he missed three page turns ago, but then a reindeer jogs Bear’s memory by asking what the hat looks like (red, pointy). He runs back to confront the rabbit, and when a squirrel asks him later if he has seen a hat-wearing rabbit, Bear is all innocence: “I haven’t seen any rabbits anywhere. I would not eat a rabbit. Don’t ask me any more questions.” This is, obviously, a dark turn, but there is no denying that the devious humor is right at a child’s level. He is a bear, after all; we should be happy he didn’t gobble up the rest of the cast. - Copyright 2011 Booklist.