Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

I wrote the review ages ago, but left the wording in present tense

This Is How I Say I Love You: Little Bunny’s Bedtime Story Told in English and Chinese by Dayong Gan

The Most Beautiful Painting: Discover the Mystery of Chinese Script (English and Mandarin Chinese Edition) by Yajuan Lu and Jian Li

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As a kid I remember checking out several folktale books from the school library. As an adult I learned to appreciate them in a way I never could have as a kid. One thing was how similar stories can pop up in different cultures, or how stories can be adapted for another setting. The other is you can learn about a country as well. And while I am not sure if the two books in this review will fit any of the above categories, or […]

Raven’ about bath time

Arlo and the Raven by Lucy Fleming

Bathtime for Snow Monkeys by Maggie Tokuda-Hall and Yas Imamura

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Because I have one of the best jobs when it comes to books (bookseller and behind the scenes goddess) I get access to future publications. While viewing the online reader copies I have access to, I located two titles that are fall publications. One is coming out in November 2026 and one in October 2026. The first was Arlo and the Raven by Lucy Fleming, the second was Bathtime for Snow Monkeys by Maggie Tokuda-Hall and illustrated by Yas Imamura. I almost did not write […]

Quirky is the World

qualo & Mage vs. the Rage of the Bakunawa: A Graphic Novel Volume 1 by Kara Bodegón-Hikino

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Quirky is the first word that comes to mind about Squalo & Mage vs. the Rage of the Bakunawa: A Graphic Novel by Kara Bodegón-Hikino. And then maybe silly, odd, not necessarily original but not derivative (okay, that’s a phrase). And maybe it is not the smoothest read, but it was a fun read nonetheless. It did its job by entertaining and (for me) was an easy read to give myself a break from all the difficult things I was reading. Yet there is enough […]

The new familar

The Princess and the Grain of Rice by Tina Cho

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When I first started working at the bookstore, I decided I was going to collect Cinderella stories from around the world. I found so many I had to stop. There were just too many. Then I decided that I would read as many fairy tales as I could and only collect the ones that really hit the spot.  And what book hits a spot better than a Princess and the Pea story? Or more accurately  The Princess and the Grain of Rice. However, this time […]

Impact of books and other really cool things

The Blue Jays That Grew a Forest by Lynn Street

Little Monk Writes Rain by Hsu-Kung Liu

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As you know I enjoy reading picture books. They are not just for the “kid crowd” as I have found (and highly encourage others  to do so, too) many books that give me information about something or someone I was unfamiliar with. I also find poetry, poetic prose, silliness and much more. But sometimes I am unable to write a “full review” so I must combine them to make one larger review. I do try to “theme” them, and I hope I did with the […]

Fun with haiku

A Pond, a Poet, and Three Pests by Caroline Adderson

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I found myself on an online picture book reading frenzy awhile back. I read (or wanted to read, or have read previous) several books by this one publisher, Groundwood Books. One of those books was A Pond, a Poet, and Three Pests by Caroline Adderson and illustrated by Lauren Tamaki. This book is an artistic imagining of how a famous poet wrote one of his most famous haikus. In simple, but far from simple text, there is an actually in depth story about the Japanese […]



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