Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time


Social justice and poetry

Woke: A Young Poet’s Call to Justice by Mahogany L. Browne

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Woke: A Young Poet’s Call to Justice is a book that I really wish I did not have to rate. It is a personal experience book that everyone will get something different from it. There are elements you will find to love and to dislike; plus, things in-between. I personally am not a fan of the word “woke” in this context. But I like being “woke” to these events. I just wish there was a different word to use. And the poets, Mahogany L. Browne, […]

“And so I decided to make a remix of flambé shrimp a la Emoni, because what better way to take a leap of faith than to set something on fire and trust it will not only come out right, but that it will be completely delicious?”

With the Fire on High by Elizabeth Acevedo

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This was lovely. Just a really well-told, sweet story. Emoni Santiago is an Afro-Puerto Rican-American high school senior living in Philadelphia and raising her two and half year old daughter, who she calls Babygirl, but whose given name is Emma. Emoni has had to grow up pretty quickly with the responsibility of raising a child, going to school, and working to help supplement her family’s income. She was also raised by her ‘Buela (grandmother), after her mother died in childbirth, and her father left to […]

With the Fire on High

With the Fire on High by Elizabeth Acevedo

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Emoni has always had a passion for cooking. Ever since she was young, she had an instinct for adding extra flair to her recipes, almost never making the same dish the same way twice. Some even claimed that her cooking is magic, even brings back forgotten memories. Emoni isn’t sure about that, she just likes to cook. During Emoni’s senior year, her school finally introduces the perfect elective: culinary arts. This class will focus on Spanish cuisine, and there will be a special trip to […]

Now Hear This

The Poet X: A Novel by Elizabeth Acevedo

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The Poet X is a novel written in verse and the recipient of many prestigious awards including the National Book Award for Young People’s Literature. In this impressive debut work, Elizabeth Acevedo demonstrates with passion and heart both the power and the vital necessity of being heard, especially when you are a young woman of color. And conversely, the novel shows the terrible destructive power of being silenced, ignored and relegated to an object, a mere physical body subject to the rules and punishments of […]

Poetic feels

The Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo

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The Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo is a coming of age story written in poetic verse. Xiomara Batista attends Catholic high school and forced by her mom to attend catechism classes. Her mom has a very strict idea of what her daughter should be. Boys are definitely off limits. Thus, she pours all her teenage angst into her prized notebook. Also lots of feelings about her classmate named Aman. It’s only when she joins the poetry club does she begin to find her voice. Unfortunately, she […]

Burn it! Burn it. This is where the poems are

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As a reader, I think a lot about endings. And this novel, though it doesn’t really deal expressly with this concept has an ending that I find pretty satisfying. I won’t mention it because you should just read. But maybe because we deal so much in movies and genre fiction, we’re uncomfortable a lot of times with books and movies that end when the story is done, but not really with a huge triumphant push at the end. So something like The Sopranos can seem […]



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