Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Celebrate, come on!

Happy Lunar New Year (Sesame Street) by Sesame Street

by Leave a Comment

  Does your child (or even you) like Sesame Street or Elmo in particular? I know that Little Red Monster (as he was once called) is not everyone’s favorite, but he is a good messenger for children (even if some of us still remember the hoopla of Tickle Me Elmo).  One thing I have always enjoyed about Sesame Street (I am “When Snuffy was Big Birds imaginary fiend” old so I am old friends with the Street of Sesame) is that they teach things at […]

You are as brave as you know

Brave Enough by Rob Justus

by Leave a Comment

Since I knew that Brave Enough was a Rob Justus production, I could see hints of their illustrative style. Especially with the skeleton that was meditating and looks like Death from Sparkles & Death novel series. However, had I not known that I do not think I would have realized it as the two books are different. Brave Enough is a picture book that came out last year. It is a book about two siblings (Younger Brother and Older Sister) who are off monster hunting. […]

Smalls

The Bend of Luck by Maria Hoey; Peter Hoey

by Leave a Comment

The Bend of Luck “Luck occurs naturally in the physical world.” This is graphic novel from 2022, and you can see from the opening line that the basic premise of the book is that luck occurs naturally in the world. What does this mean exactly? Luck is elemental here, a kind of gaseous form that dissipates in the air, but can retain its form in liquid and other materials. The novel begins with the formation of this element, taking us through millions of years of […]

So, you’re Brad Pitt? That don’t impress me much, but this book did

Death & Sparkles book one by Rob Justus

by Leave a Comment

When Sparkles is being a real pain in the butt, if Death sneezes, Sparkles farts. Yes, there is little kid humor (and this kid found it amusing) in Death & Sparkles book one. Yet, there is a lot going on that is serious in the middle of all of this humor. The idea of fame and true friendship is the focus, while we have evil managers (Colonel Parker had nothing on Sparkles manager!) and cupcakes. Lots of cupcakes. While some sensitive readers/listeners might not be […]

Theodore Dreiser

An American Tragedy by Theodore Dreiser

by Leave a Comment

“Dusk—of a summer night. And the tall walls of the commercial heart of an American city of perhaps 400,000 inhabitants—such walls as in time may linger as a mere fable.”   One of the more interesting things about this novel is that it came out in 1925, a few months after The Great Gatsby. I don’t think it’s likely, but I would be curious to know if Dreiser made any changes to this text in response. The two books are not hugely similar in terms […]

But Do Say Something of the Cat

To Say Nothing of the Dog by Connie Willis

by 2 Comments

To Say Nothing of the Dog wasn’t sitting on my shelf at home, but was tucked away in a used book store in Loreto, Mexico. I had seen the book title years ago, once confusing it with Let’s Not go to the Dogs Tonight (these books have nothing in common other than Dog in the title) and for a few pesos was willing to give it a go.  The story is intentionally silly, the Coventry Cathedral is being rebuilt in Oxford in the future. The […]



Help Our Mission

You can donate to CBR via:

  1. PayPal
  2. Venmo