Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Empowered by his faith

Salat in Secret by Jamilah Thompkins-Biegelow

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I was not sure what to expect from Salat in Secret. I figured it would be more of a story about a boy who is picked on, teased, even harassed, when he prays, so he then hides doing it. Instead, we start out in Jamilah Thompkins-Biegelow’s story with the narrator, Mouhammad, hiding his praying. He is now seven, and old enough to have his own Salat rug for prayers. But he wonders how people might react to him, as he has seen how the community […]

Celebration of Ramadan

Aliya’s Secret: A Story of Ramadan by Fairda Zaman

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I know ages ago I read a story about a child who wanted to celebrate Ramadan by fasting like the rest of their family, but I honestly cannot remember the title. However, I do not think it matters as I also remember not liking it a lot, and I know why now. It was missing the vital piece of Aliya’s Secret: A Story of Ramadan has. That book dealt just with the fasting element, and Fairda Zaman covers so much more in Aliya’s Secret. They […]

Save the world and work the family food truck

 Mabuhay! A Graphic Novel by Zachary Sterling

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We know the surface story, but there are several fun twists and turns in Mabuhay! A Graphic Novel.  What I mean is, we know sibling issues, how as kids our parents are always embarrassing us, that we are trying to make friends while dealing with bullies and trying to fit in. And one will not be able to do that when your parents own a food truck called The Beautiful Pig and you are in the smelly pig mascot costume. Or if  your kid sister is just […]

You know Disco Duck, now meet Willow Feathers McBeaver Detective Duck

Detective Duck: The Case of the Strange Splash (Detective Duck #1) by Henry Winkler and Lin Oliver

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Once Upon a Time a little girl (me) liked the character called, The Fonz. She sat on the couch, in her pink party dress, thumbs up, with one of her uncles sitting next to her (only common feature was the thumb gesture, though since she came from a good looking family, both of them were very attractive). Fly forward and that little girl is now a big girl (still me) and while I do not put  thumbs up anymore, I do read a book or […]

Working Boats

Working Boats by Tom Crestodina

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, I love cross-section books. The works of Steven Biesty are some of my all-time favs to revisit. The intricate detail, Wimmelbinder fun of finding all the things in a lively and complex drawing is very soothing to certain noisy parts of my brain. As such, after I’d checked out at one of my favorite local bookstores, and saw Working Boats on the shelf post-checkstand, with its cross-section of an OSHA research vessel on the cover, I grabbed a copy and looped back through the […]



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