Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time
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Join the Yay for YA Discussion About YA Books Now  
Cover of Donut Summer by Anita Kelly

“Life is all about feeling too many different things at the same time. But you don’t have to figure it out right now.“

Donut Summer by Anita Kelly

July 24, 2025 by Emmalita Leave a Comment

Anita Kelly’s YA debut, Donut Summer, has murdered me with adorable and relatable. It is funny and sweet, and deals with some serious topics in ways that feel realistic and manageable. Penny Dexter is ready to be a little bit different this summer, working at Delicious Donuts instead of an environmental science internship, and Mateo della Penna is going to screw it all up for her by working at Delicious Donuts too. The two have a history of not being friends, but Penny has cataloged […]

Filed Under: Romance, Young Adult Tagged With: Anita Kelly, anxiety representation, Donut Summer, LGBTQ, trans character

Emmalita's CBR17 Review No:49 · Genres: Romance, Young Adult · Tags: Anita Kelly, anxiety representation, Donut Summer, LGBTQ, trans character ·
Rating:
· 0 Comments

“That look was the absolute truth. I know it the way you know things sometimes, bone-deep as loneliness, right in the living room of the heart.”

Juniper Harvey and the Vanishing Kingdom by Nina Varela

February 26, 2024 by faintingviolet Leave a Comment

As I mentioned in my review of The Carrefour Curse there are two tasks in the 2024 Read Harder Challenge that are specifically about middle grades books. Juniper Harvey and the Vanishing Kingdom is my selection for task 6: read a middle grade book with an LGBTQIA main character. Right off the bat, this is a good book, in fact Nina Varela can write better than most authors I’ve come across in the past year or more. I just wish Middle Grades was an audience […]

Filed Under: Children's Books, Fantasy Tagged With: a little fantasy, anxiety representation, CBR16SweetBooks, galatea, Juniper Harvey and the Vanishing Kingdom, lgbtq characters, Middle Grades, myth retelling, Nina Varela, pygmalion, read harder challenge, we need diverse books

faintingviolet's CBR16 Review No:11 · Genres: Children's Books, Fantasy · Tags: a little fantasy, anxiety representation, CBR16SweetBooks, galatea, Juniper Harvey and the Vanishing Kingdom, lgbtq characters, Middle Grades, myth retelling, Nina Varela, pygmalion, read harder challenge, we need diverse books ·
· 0 Comments


Recent Comments

  • jomidi
    on CBR Diversion – YAY for YA – Genre Discussion
    When my daughter was in middle school and high school it was one depressing book after another (both assigned classroom...
  • BlackRaven
    on CBR Diversion – YAY for YA – Genre Discussion
    I can understand why people do not like the depressing stories, but I can appreciate the realism to them. And...
  • Jen K
    on “Age would have taken her if they’d just had the sense to leave well enough alone.”
    I have Red Sister - I picked it up on sale ages when I kept confusing/conflating Lawrence and Abercrombie. So...
  • LittlePlat
    on “Age would have taken her if they’d just had the sense to leave well enough alone.”
    I'll confess, I was sort of the same; I really did like the first installment, but by the time we...
  • Jen K
    on “Age would have taken her if they’d just had the sense to leave well enough alone.”
    I’m still holding a grudge against Lawrence because of the Library trilogy - I really liked the first one and...
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