Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time


Picture it, Haiti, 1930s

When the Mapou Sings by Nadine Pinede

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When the Mapou Sings by Nadine Pinede is a romantic telling of a young girl learning her real place in the world through a perhaps lesser-known piece of history. A bit fanciful at times, and the ending a bit too convenient, but overall well done. A solid 3.5 for the rating and I will be looking for more by this author, but that might be awhile as this is their debut prose poetry novel. Lucilles’s (the narrator and heroine of our story) journey seems as […]

Kindness can go a long way.

La bondad brilla en la oscuridad / Kindness Glows in the Dark (Spanish and English Edition) by Gama Valle and Mrinali Álvarez Astacio

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While food insecurity is not a new subject, it is not one that is always talked about, especially in a picture book form or is not always accessible to all readers or listeners. The story La bondad brilla en la oscuridad / Kindness Glows in the Dark (Spanish and English Edition) by Gama Valle and Mrinali Álvarez Astacio (Illustrator) introduces this concept to a younger audience, but the extras at the end allow it to grow with the reader. The format, the place the story […]

What can a potato do?

Alberto Salas Plays Paka Paka con la Papa: Join the Quest with Peru's Famed Scientist and Potato Expert by Sara Andrea Fajardo and Juana Martinez-Neal

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As with several books I was not going to read, Alberto Salas Plays Paka Paka con la Papa: Join the Quest with Peru’s Famed Scientist and Potato Expert by Sara Andrea Fajardo and Juana Martinez-Neal (illustrator) was one of them, but it eventually found its way to my TBR pile as it was on a Best of 2025 Picture Book list. This was the final sign that told me I probably should read it. I was still nervous as when a book gets that hyped […]

Take a trip to the market

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Mari and the Great Market Swap came up on my online reader site. It had a nice cover. It was bright, interesting, but was not saying READ ME NOW. I thought about it. I went to do other things. I read other things. The next day I said, “Well, it’s still there. Might as well give Janelle Springer-Willms’s book a go.” And I did. Now, while it might not be a WOW read, it is a strong cozy read. It did not shock or blow […]

Coming of age during the Cuban Revolution

How to Say Goodbye in Cuban by Daniel Miyares

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Cbr17bingo Border (leaving Cuba’s borders is dangerous, entering the US boarding is difficult) While a tense story, How to Say Goodbye in Cuban by Daniel Miyares, is also a delightful one of overcoming the adversity of the times. Though immigration stories are not new, the author makes this based on real events (his own fathers journey from Cuba to the States) fresh. This is a relatively unknown story as I have not seen a lot of stories that were set so much in Cuba with little […]

That feeling

Saudade: Our Longing for Brazil, by Ana Crespo and André Ceolin

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Older books are just as good as a current book or a future publication book. Because, Hello … BOOK! Books are things we long for! Hope for! Need! Now, I am not sure if it fits the definition of saudade (a word that has no real direct to English translation, but basically means “an intense longing for something or someone.”) What is saudade, is the mothers feeling in the story Saudade: Our Longing for Brazil, for the things she left behind in Brazil. Ana Crespo, […]



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