Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time


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I'm a librarian, a singer, a cosplayer, an overachiever... @cosbrarian on most platforms. (Learn more about this Cannonballer: Cosbrarian's 2025 Quick Questions interview.)

cosbrarian's Reviews:

My fave does it again!

Grown by Tiffany D. Jackson

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“The most disrespected person in America is the Black woman. The most unprotected person in America is the Black woman. The most neglected person in America is the Black woman.” – Malcolm X Tiffany D. Jackson is one of my favorite YA authors. She consistently writes riveting mystery novels featuring black teen girls.  The mystery usually revolves around a particular social issue facing black women, and I’m continually impressed with how her writing immensely satisfies both the mystery component and the social one. I will […]

“Mama always knew the wrong thing to say.”

Beauty Mark: a Verse Novel of Marilyn Monroe by Carole Boston Weatherford

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In this slim volume, Weatherford imagines a memoir written by Monroe, chronicling her life from her tumultuous childhood in foster care to her troubled final days in her L.A. home.  It includes both personal, introspective pieces about Monroe’s internal struggles as well as pieces that catalog her film career and persona, and the public response to it. I devour any biographical media of Monroe’s as she is my number one icon. As a teen, I stole a poster of her from a neighboring school’s production […]

High fives all around!

A High Five For Glenn Burke by Phil Bildner

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Sixth grader Silas Wade adores baseball, and it adores him. Center fielder for his middle-school league and the heart of the team, Silas loves to boost morale with good-natured pranks, spreading love of The Sandlot (aka the greatest movie of all time), but most importantly winning games.  For his middle school biography project, Silas turns to baseball too, and knocks it out of the park with a presentation on Glenn Burke, five-tool talent of the L.A. Dodgers in the 1970s, who not only killed it […]

“The tricky thing about giving opinions is that sometimes they cost you more than you wanted to spend.”

The Downstairs Girl by Stacey Lee

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Jo Kuan and her father figure Old Jin have gotten by pretty well, considering they are Chinese Americans in the deep South of 1890.  Old Jin works as a horse caretaker for a local wealthy family, and Jo has a talent for millinery, so she is hopeful for an apprenticeship at the shop she works.  However, she is abruptly fired one day due to her supposed overly-frank attitude with customers (“You make the customers uncomfortable”).  Old Jin is able to get her a position as […]

“Whatever happens, believe that the journey is worth taking, and then you will reach its end.”

Seaward by Susan Cooper

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Cally and Westerly are strangers from opposite ends of the world who are about to be brought together in a place they least expect. Both reeling from grief at losing their parents, they find themselves in a mysterious, magical, and malevolent land that has echoes of their own, but otherwise is beyond imagining. They each have their own shared directive: to find the sea, where their parents implied they could be found. In this land, they meet a majestic, beautiful, and terrifying woman named Tyrannis, […]

“‘It’ll heal ugly.’ But most things do.”

Sadie by Courtney Summers

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First off, you MUST read the audiobook version of this, put that print edition down, the audio is where it’s at! West McCray is a public-radio type audio personality who specializes in stories about small nobody-towns in America.  One day at a gas station, he learns about a local girl who has gone missing. Sadie Hunter was grieving the recent and brutal murder of her sister Mattie when she disappeared. Local police believe it to be a simple case of a runaway not worth pursuing, […]



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