Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time


If you are you

If Dominican Were a Color by Sili Recio

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The narrator of the story, If Dominican Were a Color, is proud of the colors of their home, the Dominican Republic. And that love shines with the text of Sili Recio and the amazing illustrations of Brianna McCarthy. From the colors of cinnamon, cocoa, the blue black of dreams and many more come to life, with deeply rich and bold illustrations. They are proud and strong. The colors explode off the page. The story itself is one we know: be proud of who you are […]

When a lizard appears

The Lizard by Jose Saramago

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I honestly have no idea what the point of the story, The Lizard was. The art of J. Borges never felt fleshed out and the story presented by Jose Saramago seems to have no point to it. Perhaps it is the way Nick Caistor and Lucia Caistor translated the text and therefore, the original language to English might not flow nicely to my ears. Perhaps it was just something deeper in the story I was missing as I  was too focused on the surface part […]

A man, his burros, and his books

Biblioburro: A True Story from Colombia by Jeanette Winter

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Biblioburro: A True Story from Colombia caught my eye because of the vivid cover illustration. It hinted at being a Tomie de Paola story but was not actually feeling 100% right. On closer inspection I learned that this was a Jeanette Winter story. Now curious, I decided to take a minute and read said book. Biblioburro is a lovely story about the power of books. It is based on the true story of how one man’s love of books literally filled his home and he […]

Day Five was the most emotional part for me…not sure I will ever truly get over that one. 

Eight Days: A Story of Haiti by Edwidge Danticat

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Edwidge Danticat writes about Haiti with love and realism. With the picture book, Eight Days: A Story of Haiti they created a beautiful and sad story about a young boy trapped for over a week after the earthquake of Haiti a few years ago. However, this came out soon after the actual event, so it was timely. Now, one might have to explain the actual event, but sadly, we still have natural disasters, and this could be used to talk about them as well. Based […]

When you’re lucky and you find one bad a$$ writer!

Dreams from Many Rivers: A Hispanic History of the United States Told in Poems by Margarita Engle

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Dreams from Many Rivers: A Hispanic History of the United States Told in Poems created by Margarita Engle are romantic in places and always serious with her pride in her heritage. And while history tends to “lump” Spanish, Mexican, Cuban, Native and other “Hispanic peoples” into one group, Engle shows how each one is separate, how each interacted with the others how Moctezuma’s great-granddaughter could also be Cortez’s great-granddaughter. The mix of historical and fiction characters is a nice touch. Each poem shows how history […]



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