Bound To Stay Bound

Booklist - 05/01/2024 *Starred Review* Delighted to exchange shelter (or “prison,” as he calls it) for a home complete with convenient pooping rug, chewing chair, and porcelain drinking fountain, “No Sam” the pug is determined to protect from all threats his new “naked-monkey-thing” pet Justin and his scientist parents, who spend most of their time working on a secret project in a home laboratory. This turns out to be a tall order, as Justin is plainly bespelled by a classmate named Phoebe, who must therefore be an evil wizard; the next-door neighbor can only be Medusa, as she has turned a peeing baby into stone; and a ghostly “wolf” keeps appearing at night on the other side of the sliding-glass patio door. Readers, of course, may opt to see things—including a few details that escape Sam’s notice, like the fact that the two monkey things lurking in a van parked across the street are spies—in a different light. Strewn with line drawings featuring a tubby but ferocious pooch wreaking havoc, deliberate or otherwise, this howlingly funny tale propels its doggy narrator through challenges ranging from explosions and dognapping to actually making friends with cats on the way to a well-earned name change: “Good boy, Sam.” - Copyright 2024 Booklist.