Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

About NTE

CBR 6
CBR 7
CBR 8
CBR 9
CBR10 participant
CBR11 participant
CBR13 participant
CBR14 Participant
CBR14 Bingo Badges
CBR15 Participant
CBR16 Participant
CBR17 Participant
CBR18 Participant

Rambling around the internet; helping niblings maneuver through college, learn their ABC's and deal with middle school (usually all on the same day); reading to remain alive.

NTE's Reviews:

“Whichever story you believe, my mother, Chang’e, became immortal. As did I.”

Daughter of the Moon Goddess by Sue Lynn Tan

by 1 Comment

A child of the Moon Goddess, and an immortal herself,  Xingyin grows up on the moon, with just her mother & their family servant/long time companion. For the most part, the three of them are happy, if isolated. Xingyin senses a grief in her mother that she can’t quite explain, and within herself she feels a growing sense to reach out … for something more. She can’t label it, and her mother has warned her against reaching for it, but the pull towards that other […]

Two Entirely Different Kinds of Pirates

Pirate Queen: A Story of Zheng Yi Sao by Helaine Becker, Ill. Liz Wong

What Isabella Wanted: Isabella Stewart Gardner Builds a Museum by Candace Fleming Ill. Matthew Cordell

by Leave a Comment

But Fortune cares nothing for your dreams. She takes up your life in her cup and shakes it so hard your teeth rattle in your head and your heart roars like a dragon in your chest. Then she throws the bones onto her table of lacquer and jade. Your fate is sealed. – Helaine Becker, Pirate Queen: A Story of Zheng Yi Sao Did I know much about Zheng Yi Sao before I read this? Only that she existed, reigned over the South China Sea […]

“It’s pretty common for the mere mention of the word disability to evoke fear, confusion, and an endless stream of misconceptions.”

Demystifying Disability by Emily Ladau

by Leave a Comment

If you’re looking for a good, 101-level introduction to current disability discourse, including (but not limited to) models of disability (medical, social, charity, economic, human rights, etc); person-first vs. identity-first language; intersectionality; and what words to start using (just say disabled, my friend: we know) and what words to STOP saying (you know the big ones, but maybe also consider how often you use blind to mean ignorant, or lame to mean boring, and sweet baby junipers, please stop calling it ‘wheelchair-bound’: I am not […]

Why, yes: I do like fall best. It is just the superior season. I won’t be entertaining arguments.

Sophie's Squash by Pat Zietlow Miller

Sharing the Bread: An Old-Fashioned Thanksgiving Story by Pat Zietlow Miller

by Leave a Comment

Some kids are quirky; Different. In Sophie’s Squash by Pat Zietlow Miller, Illustrated by Anne Wilsdorf, Sophie is one of those kids. Instead of letting the squash her parents bought at the farmer’s market be relegated to their dinner table, she decides instead that the squash is just the right size to love; to “bounce on her knee;” to give a face, name Bernice & become her constant companion. After a while, & many library trips, garden somersaults, baby bottles, hugs and kisses later, nature […]

Walter Does His Best, and so do the rest of us

Walter Does His Best by Eva Pilgrim

by Leave a Comment

In Walter Does His Best by Eva Pilgrim, Walter is a good dog, or at least he tries really hard to be. Kids will enjoy his misadventures – digging in the neighbor’s garden, giving up his seat on the subway, helping ducks to cross the street – even though his owner certainly does not. As each of Walter’s attempts to help go ever more and more awry, the illustrations and text get more outrageous, and more hilarious – the page where Walter tries to impress […]

“…loving Blackness enough to see its assets so that dark children matter.” Dr. Bettina L. Love

Hair Story by NoNieqa Ramos

by Leave a Comment

I’m having a hard time explaining just how much I loved this book, but I’m going to do my best. First off, Hair Story is own voices written & illustrated, and both the author, NoNieqa Ramos, and the illustrator, Keisha Morris, include their own hair stories at the back of the book, which was a lovely surprise.     Second, do you see these illustrations? The texture and colors and patterns and perfection of them?  You can see the love in that grandmother’s face, the joy in […]



Help Our Mission

You can donate to CBR via:

  1. PayPal
  2. Venmo