Bound To Stay Bound

Booklist - 08/01/2019 How do animals prepare for winter? Salas offers 12 examples in a picture book with three kinds of text. In large type, rhymed couplets offer brief, sometimes cryptic comments on each double-page spread. Text for the monarch butterfly spread reads, “Float like a kite on a sweet, nectar breeze. / Cluster on branches of tall family trees.” The verse text maintains a consistently cheerful tone. In smaller type, a sentence provides a fact or two about the animal pictured, while most of the information appears in the well-structured back matter aimed at older readers. In the illustrated main section of the book, the arrangement of featured animals and their winter strategies seems somewhat random, but the back matter reveals the overall organization in paragraphs of text that explain the three main survival strategies (migrate, hibernate, tolerate) and discuss the four examples of each. Within the pastel artwork, rounded forms, soft edges, and warm colors create an endearing look. Primary grade teachers may find this picture book a useful read-aloud choice to supplement units on animals in winter. - Copyright 2019 Booklist.

School Library Journal - 09/01/2019 PreS-K—What animals do to survive winter weather is divided into four categories: migration, hibernation, toleration, or a combination of these actions. Gévry's soft pastel illustrations combine with Salas's rhyming text, depicting the wildlife in two-page spreads. Bear, butterfly, chipmunk, fox, frog, hummingbird, moose, mouse, snake, whale, worm, and even people show their accommodations. On one spread, two monarch butterflies sail through the landscape toward their group clustered in trees: "Float like a kite on a sweet, nectar breeze. Cluster on branches of tall family trees." The text is mellifluous, and the inclusion of a fast fact in small script does not distract from the whole: "This monarch butterfly flies south in fall to mate and lay eggs in spring." The back matter, written at a fifth-grade level, describes each of the animals and their methods of surviving their climate. VERDICT Despite the annoying trend in juvenile nonfiction literature of excluding sources, the lack of documentation here does not hinder the value of such a well-organized, clearly written, and delightfully illustrated work. Too charming to miss.—Nancy Call, formerly at Santa Cruz Public Libraries, Aptos, CA - Copyright 2019 Publishers Weekly, Library Journal and/or School Library Journal used with permission.