Bound To Stay Bound

Booklist - 02/15/2024 *Starred Review* Ronan is a boy who rarely says a word, so it’s hard to know what he’s thinking. But when Grandfather asks him to accompany him to a concert, a new experience for Ronan, he goes. At the concert hall, they sit in bright red seats and watch the musicians take the stage with their instruments. The audience becomes quiet, waiting for the music. Some instruments sound “cool and frightening,” while others seem “warm and friendly.” Together, “they sound like a sky full of stars.” When the music ends, everyone is silent, until Ronan loudly says, “WOW!” It “fills up the hearts of all the people in the audience,” who laugh at first and then applaud for Ronan and the orchestra, too. Based on an actual 2019 Mozart concert performed in Boston, attended by a nine-year-old nonverbal child named Ronan, the story is beautifully told with just enough well-chosen words. Created using ink, watercolor, chalk, acrylic, and collage, the imaginative art suggests the boy’s reverie while listening to the music, as well as the physical settings at home, in his grandfather’s car, and at home again, where the initially rather staid atmosphere becomes warmer and livelier after his return. An unusual picture book that tells a memorable story. - Copyright 2024 Booklist.