Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

I don’t always listen to heavy metal, but when I do… …so do the neighbors

Heavy Metal Badger by Duncan Beedie

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I saw the cover of Heavy Metal Badger, and was OMG that is SO for a friend of mine. And then realized their kids probably were too old for a picture book. But then I thought, “Who cares? That is SO their kids!” So, now you know my friend has Heavy Metal Badger kids, who like to rock out and be themselves. Just like Duncan Beedie’s main Badger, who is a rocker, loves to rock out, and with trial and error finds their band, their tribe of […]

Be the lion, until you need to be the rabbit

When Rabbit Was a Lion by Eugenie Fernande

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When Rabbit Was a Lion is a story about a child, Rabbit, who is not a fan of parties, noise and too much excitement. But he likes his friends, and wants to celebrate with them. Creating a costume party, Rabbit is all ready to party after rushing about making it, but after a while things are too much, and he needs to hide. When he is found, his friends decide that they will now help him by toning down the wild rumpus. Eugenie Fernandes’s story […]

It’s hairy, it’s scary, it has toe beans!

The Scariest Kitten in the World by Kate Messner

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The Scariest Kitten in the World is a hilarious picture book by Terrifying Kitten (and help from Kate Messner) and illustrated by MacKenzie Haley in the vein of Sesame Street’s The Monster at the End of This Book. The theme is we have a not-so-scary kitten and a not-too-terrifying haunted house that is explored by a few (unseen) kids/possible narrator. The narrator takes us slowly down a spooky corridor, to a spooky sound where we find the spooky… okay adorable little monster stands … okay […]

One little girl, two big stories

Always Anjali  by Sheetal Sheth

Bravo, Anjali! by Sheetal Sheth

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I have read a few books about having a “different” or “difficult” name to have and/or pronounce. And I can empathize with them. Now, my name is not as unusual as Anjali or the author Sheetal Sheth has, but when I was growing up, we did not have “unusual” names. The most “exotic” was we had two spellings of Stacey/Stacy and a few Jennifer’s with various N’s. However, I know what it is like to go to the store and find the Name Item Display […]

Reading the art as the art is the read

Let's Read Animals Words by Ji Lee

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Let’s Read Animals Words is an easy concept. Or so it would seem. I expected to see a picture of a cat and then have words like whiskers, paws, kittens, ears, milk. But nope. Ji Lee made a book where the word is the animal. Therore, the lines swoop into a tail, the P of the word penguin creates the head. Things become a wild game of Jenga that should never hold up. And occasionally it does not. While granted it does not fall down (because you know, image […]

The world in your hands

A Garden in My Hands by Meera Siram

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I have found several picture books of late. One of them, A Garden in My Hands is a sweet, contemporary book that explores the Indian culture of one child’s family. While the mother of the story shares her own stories about the family, their culture, and more, the little girl watches them come alive as her mother applies to her hands some henna. There is a little humor and a lot of love. Meera Siram has tapped into a special world to share with those […]



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