Bound To Stay Bound

School Library Journal - 08/01/2025 PreS-Gr 1—This enchanting story tells of a white family and their different modes of transportation. The littlest family member uses a tricycle, the papa uses a big car for big expeditions, and then there's the Mama Car, a wheelchair, which Mama uses to move around the house and out in the yard, as well as in the wider world. The Mama Car is much cozier than the big car because the Mama Car is powered by Mama. With the innocence of a preschooler, the child explains how comforting it is to be in the Mama Car with her mom. The warmly colored illustrations add to the feelings of love and contentment that radiate from the book. There is no explanation for the mother or the father's reasons for using wheelchairs and crutches, because it doesn't matter to the child. The themes of love and caring for each other shine through this cozy and empathetic text. This would be a great story to use to talk with young children about ability differences in families. VERDICT This loving and enjoyable picture book is a strong choice for preschool collections.—Debbie Tanner - Copyright 2025 Publishers Weekly, Library Journal and/or School Library Journal used with permission.

Booklist - 11/01/2025 *Starred Review* An adoring child shares her favorite things about her mother’s wheelchair in a wonderfully approachable slice-of-life story. “I have a tricycle. . . . Daddy has a big car. And Mama has a Mama Car.” Mother and daughter make adventures out of everyday activities, taking an “expedition” to the kitchen for snack time and decorating the chair’s wheels. After a tumble off her trike, the young girl finds cozy comfort in Mama’s lap: “the Mama Car is warm and I just have Mama all around me.” Plainspoken text is playfully printed, using bolded, tilted, and differing font sizes for childlike emphasis, while the crisp white pages boast pleasingly varied, clean-lined illustrations that have the look of colored pencil. Disabled disability advocate Catchpole, a wheelchair user, is the Schneider Honor Book coauthor of You’re SO Amazing (2024) with husband James, who, like the father in this book, has one leg. (A portrait of that book’s protagonist, Joe, sits on this family’s mantle.) The world of children’s literature still has a lot of catching up to do in authentically representing disability experiences, but the Catchpoles deserve credit for moving it in a positive direction. The matter-of-factness about the mundanities of daily life with a disability—not presented with the sense that it’s anything to be overcome or sympathized with, but utterly normal—is beyond refreshing. Recommended for all collections. - Copyright 2025 Booklist.