Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Grandmothers are special

Something about Grandma by Tania de Regil

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Julia goes to stay with her grandmother for the first time without her parents. And there is Something about Grandma and something about her house, the area she lives, the town and more. The things Julia does with her grandmother are different. They have sugar bread that is brought to them in a basket, that the lady delivery it places on her head.  There are different smells, colors and hot chocolate can cure homesickness. Her grandmother knows when Julia has picked limes from the garden, […]

All kinds of words

A Way with Words by Stacy Burch

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The main theme of this picture book is words. Or lack thereof. And therefore, it is also about communication. We follow Little Sam as they never speak words, but of course, that does not mean they cannot say many things. And of course, since she is different, people figure she does not have much to say, or really anything important to say. Stacy Burch has a multiple layered story with A Way with Words. It can be adapted to fit your specific need. This book […]

Intelligence not so artificial

Made in Korea by Jeremy Holt

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You think you are getting one story and it turns around to become another when reading Made in Korea.  Yet it is still the first story!  Jeremy Holt (a nonbinary author) has created a commentary on humanity, life, children, privilege, sexuality, gender and more all bottled up, ready to explode off the page. The words are complimented and enhanced by the art of George Schall. Even when there is light used, the darker overtones come into play. Set in the not too far future, we […]

Let’s go to sleep

The Dreamway by Lisa Papademetriou

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I do not remember how I found out about The Dreamway by Lisa Papademetriou but find it I did, and an interlibrary loan is how it came to be in my possession. I would have loved this as a 10-to 13-year-old. The story is cute, but not overly cutesy. There is enough fantasy to grab the fantasy reader, but enough reality to grab them, too. The sibling story is interesting. The narrator’s disability does not come into play a lot (and in fact could be […]

A nod to Dollhouse the show

Dolltopia by Abby Denson

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I think Abby Denson’s ponytail is too tight! They created one outrageous, crazy, mixed-up commentary on life, love, and the pursuit of happiness when they made Dolltopia. Denson tells the story of (even from the first conscious moment in the Doll Factory), a doll (Kitty Ballerina) realizing that she wants more. She did not even wait for the mind-numbing play with the humans before she realized doll life sucked. She finally gets up the nerve to break away from the dream house and Soccer Scotty […]

Science & Nature & Grief & Love

With a Butterfly’s Wings by Pilar Lopez Avila

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This is a sweet, but also somber, story of a grandmother and granddaughter and how they interact while observing the world around them.  It is a picture book of how a grandmother teaches a grandchild how to view the world, explore the world, and to appreciate nature and the animals and plants that reside in it. This is a poem and love letter. On the pages of With a Butterfly’s Wings we see how secrets, appreciation and love are passed along and how even when […]



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