Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time


Join the CBR18 Book Bingo Reading Challenge—Now Underway!   

The Story Will Be Told

Anacaona: Golden Flower, Haiti, 1490 by Edwidge Danticat

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CBR18 Bingo: Steal – This book tells the story of the arrival of the first conquistadors in the New World, and the start of their wanton rampaging and theft of land and gold from the people who already live there. Anacaona, the niece of one of the five chiefs of Hispaniola, is busy preparing to one day succeed her uncle and considering marriage with another chief. But when she begins to get strange premonitions of danger, and strange white men appear on their shores, she […]

Women, Brave as Stars at Dawn

Breath, Eyes, Memory by Edwidge Danticat

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Bingo: UnCannon Several years ago I read Brother, I’m Dying by Edwidge Danticat. As I recall, I was in tears by the end of the first chapter. It is a beautiful, unbearably sad book. Breath, Eyes, Memory is in the same vein (and once again, I was crying before I was even 30 pages in). It’s the story of Sophie, who is being raised in Haiti by her aunt, as her mother has emigrated to New York. When the story starts Sophie is about 12 […]

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 […]

But no no no, she did not want to be found.

Claire of the Sea Light by Edwidge Danticat

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Next books for mowing! So this book feels almost like an accidental sequel to my previous book, Bernice L McFadden’s Gathering of Waters. This book takes place in Haiti, where we meet a fisherman and his young daughter. We begin with this fisherman trying to give her to a local fabricstore owner. And we learn soon enough that he’s in deep despair and mourning for the death of her mother, who died when Claire was born. The fabric store owner was there when the mother […]

“My father was dying and I was pregnant. Both struck me as impossibly unreal.”

Brother, I'm dying by Edwidge Danticat

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Do you like to cry? Do you like to be reminded about sadness, loss and the general unfairness of the world. Then boy! Do I have the book for you. In the very first chapter we follow a daughter as she takes her dying father to the hospital, and then later in the living room at home when he gathers the family turns to his wife and asks “What would you like to happen after I am gone?” So there we are, not just in […]

What is Better than Mommy and Daddy Love?

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What is better than mommy love? Two books about how awesome moms are (and for good measure one dad, too). My Mommy Medicine given to us by Edwidge Danticat and illustrated by Shannon Wright (due late February 2019) talks about when a little girl wakes up not feeling well she and her mom can do all sorts of things to make her feel better. Sometimes it is hugs, reading, taking naps, drinking hot chocolate or tea, telling stories, dancing and sometimes real medicine. Based on […]



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