Bound To Stay Bound

Other - 03/31/2025 Ho (We Who Produce Pearls) and Ren (Night Market Rescue) team up for a kawaii-styled look at cultural belonging that features bubble teas as protagonists. In tradition-steeped Milk Tea Town, "residents prided themselves on their subtle shades of brown, quality ingredients, and classic milk tea flavor," standards that the whole community upholds. But the birth of Mindy, a boba baby displaying bands of green, white, and pink, heralds a generation of multihued beverages that "many thought were questionably probably not quite milk teas at all!" Wanting to be "milk tea enough," Mindy takes classes and researches the beverage’s multifaceted history, only to find that "the most classic milk tea flavor is one that keeps on changing." Tea-oriented puns (a tea ancestor’s running away with a pudding "caused quite the stir") pepper this message-forward read that includes historical beats. Bright mixed media and digital art foregrounds anthropomorphized boba cups that feature tapioca-ball eyes. Contextualizing comics panels and creators’ notes conclude. Ages 4-8. Author’s agent: Caryn Wiseman, Andrea Brown Literary. illustrator’s agent: Jennifer Rof?, Andrea Brown Literary. (June) - Copyright 2025

School Library Journal - 07/25/2025 PreS-Gr 2—Through the metaphor of milk tea, Ho offers readers a glimpse into what some first-generation Americans might experience, told through an adorable and colorful cast of boba beverages. In Milk Tea Town, everyone is the same from their similar shades of brown to their quality ingredients and milk tea flavor. It is a town where tradition is highly valued and nothing changes. When Mindy comes along, she isn't like the others. Instead of a shade of brown, she is pink-, green-, and white-striped. As there are other young milk teas just like her who also do not look like milk teas of tradition, the grown-ups in town are worried that their town will be ruined. Mindy decides to learn how to be more milk tea. In doing so, she and her friends show the town that there's a lot more to milk tea than any of them could have imagined. Some readers will be introduced to milk tea for the first time, while others will enjoy reading a book about their favorite treat. Many children in immigrant families may relate to Mindy's struggles of not feeling like she's enough, and the desire to feel closer to their cultures while also trying to embrace the aspects of themselves that make them individuals. Though these messages may seem heavy and complicated, the use of milk tea and eye-catching illustrations makes the story easy to understand for a picture book audience while also leaving room for deeper conversations as they grow. VERDICT This wonderful picture book about topics of culture, familiar foods, and acceptance is a grand addition for picture book collections.—Myiesha Speight - Copyright 2025 Publishers Weekly, Library Journal and/or School Library Journal used with permission.