Bound To Stay Bound

Booklist - 12/15/2019 Recasting a folktale best known from Margaret Read MacDonald’s How Many Donkeys? An Arabic Counting Tale (2009), Soontornvat sends the 10 rambunctious Blunder children out to play at the behest of their fed up (and, judging from Jack’s cartoon illustrations, single) mother. At day’s end, it’s time to go inside, but whether going backwards or forwards, by ones, twos, threes, or in Spanish, each child’s try for a head count ends up one short. Along with counting practice, younger audiences will have a chance to test their powers of observation to solve the mystery; though all children are visible in all the pictures, none of the dismayed young Blunders who attempt the count include themselves. Mama Blunder listens to their panicky excuses (“One of us had a business meeting!” “In Iceland!” “Further than that—in Idaho!”), lets them hang for a moment, and then, with 10 kisses, proves that everyone is accounted for. A tricky bit of after-dinner division involving 10 children and 2 pies supplies a final twist to this classic bit of foolery. - Copyright 2019 Booklist.