Bound
by Donna Jo Napoli
BOUND by Donna Jo Napoli
Category: Contemporary
Age Recommendation: Grades 9+
Release Date: 8/1/06
Publisher: Simon Pulse
Reviewed by: Taylor Rector
Rating: 5 Stars
Xing Xing is a young woman who is treated like the classic lower class stepchild in Donna Jo Napoli's BOUND.
Her mother died when she was very young and her father then remarried. The woman that takes care of her (if you want
to call it that) is her father’s new wife. Xing Xing has a stepsister who has bound feet and can’t walk, so she is treated by
her stepmother as though she were a maid.
The story is told in the classic tale of Cinderella, with the wicked step-family and the prince trying to find the girl who the
missing shoe fits. There is even a great mix of Chinese culture thrown in! I learned a lot about the old (and now mostly)
unused tradition of binding a girl’s feet.
I enjoyed BOUND because I really love the Cinderella story. Xing Xing becomes a character that you want to see
succeed and a girl whom you want to find a suitable husband. You care what happens to her and want to know how she
survives her mean stepmother.
