Bound To Stay Bound

School Library Journal - 01/01/2026 Gr 2–5—From the pair behind A Map Into the World comes the poignant story of a young Hmong girl and her journey to find out what "home" means to her. Nou opens the door to her house one morning to find "Asians go home!" scrawled on the family's mailbox. Her father paints over the hateful words, but Nou knows they linger beneath the surface. Combined with microaggressions that she endures at school, Nou begins to question where she really belongs. The members of her family share how they see home. For her father it is in the songs of their culture; for her grandmother it is in her sewing of story quilts. Nou begins to write down her feelings and through this creative outlet she discovers that for her she can "build a home for myself on the page." The story's journey from an upsetting realistic beginning softens and the lines become more flowing and emotive in a warm palette as Nou discovers her sense of belonging through her writing. VERDICT A powerful story with beautiful illustrations that not only calls out the hate that is in the world today but also provides a message of hope for those who are in search of a creative outlet to find their proverbial home. Recommended.—John Scott - Copyright 2026 Publishers Weekly, Library Journal and/or School Library Journal used with permission.

Other - 01/26/2026 A Hmong family’s "soft and sunny" morning shatters when young Nou opens her front door and finds a hateful message painted on their mailbox in this searching picture book. Though Mom tries to wash it off and Dad covers over it with paint, Nou laments, "It is not the first time a stranger has left us this kind of message." Nou wants to leave America for "a place where people want us," Yang writes, but after Dad insists "America is your home," Nou contemplates the word’s real meaning for "my people," who "have no country." And family discussions about places of belonging (Dad’s in his songs, and Mom’s in her garden) leave the child firming up their own definition ("A place where I am accepted") and creating a kind of home in the notebooks they keep. Visually expressing the story’s emotional shifts in digital, largely shadowless illustrations that mimic graphite, pastels, and watercolor, Kim renders tumult in dense scribbles that morph into sketchbook-like renderings as Nou builds a home, and returns to serenity, by drawing and writing. Author and illustrator notes and a Hmong glossary conclude. Background characters are portrayed with various skin tones. Ages 5-10. (Feb.) - Copyright 2026