Bound To Stay Bound

Booklist - 01/01/2023 *Starred Review* In his appended author’s note, Klassen shares how he stumbled upon and reimagined the Tyrolean folktale that occupies this early chapter book’s pages. He casts off the original’s “Beauty and the Beast” glamour in favor of a gritty sort of moxie that results in a more rewarding friendship story. One night, young Otilla runs away from home and becomes lost in the snowy woods. Eventually, she comes upon a seemingly abandoned mansion, but when she knocks on its door, it is politely answered by a skull. Otilla takes this strangeness in stride as the skull gives her a tour of his home and invites her to stay the night, on the condition that she helps him escape the headless skeleton that tries to capture him each night. She agrees and boy does she deliver. Klassen’s recognizable graphite-and-ink illustrations capture the haunting—yet somehow charming—atmosphere of the stark Austrian setting, where shadows loom, bones come to life, and apricot sunshine cuts through the gloom. The book itself is divided into three sections, where the text is kept short but printed large and the artwork takes center stage. Is the story creepy? You bet, but it’s also weirdly sweet and characterized by agency, kindness, and choice. It won’t be for all readers, but for those who thrill at peering into shadows, it will shine bright.HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: With a Caldecott Medal, best-seller status, and a cult following to his name, Klassen's newest offering will be highly coveted. - Copyright 2023 Booklist.

School Library Journal - 09/29/2023 Gr 2–4—Reducing an old tale to, appropriately enough, bare bones, Klassen puts a distinctive spin on the "unlikely friends" trope. Fleeing an unspecified danger as creepy, disembodied voices call her name, young Otilla comes upon a large house in the middle of the forest where she meets and bonds with a lonely skull. Soon they are dancing together in a silent, empty ballroom, and she is tenderly pouring tea into the skull's mouth—"'Ah, nice and warm,' said the skull. 'Thank you.'" Learning that the skull is being relentlessly hunted by a headless skeleton, Otilla stages an ambush that night and methodically smashes the bony bully to bits. The next morning when the skull, still (in a departure from the original story) a skull, thanks her and invites her to stay, she responds with typical restraint: "All right." Like the laconic, stretched-out narrative, the stripped-down art echoes with notes both gothic and comical; the tea bit has a slapstick feel, particularly as the skull is drawn with solid bone in place of jaws or teeth, and for all the intimate mutual regard that readers sensitive to emotional nuances will see developing between the lines, Otilla, who is likewise deadpan throughout, has staring eyes that will give even hardened fans of Edward Gorey shivers. In a perceptive source note, the author justifies the changes he has made with the insight that our brains automatically make every story we read or hear our own. VERDICT Twists aplenty for younger audiences in an eerie, atmospheric, and, unsurprisingly provocative outing.—John Edward Peters - Copyright 2023 Publishers Weekly, Library Journal and/or School Library Journal used with permission.