Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time


I’m Naked! I’m Naked! I’m Me!

Fred Gets Dressed by Peter Brown

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Fred Gets Dressed is a modern story about a child finding the outfit that fits that day’s expression.  As a wild, independent, and typical kid, Fred, runs around naked. Then decides to try an experiment with their parents clothing coming to an understanding what outfit works best. It is an obvious story, simple and sweet. The “middle ground” with the liking or not category would be: “I did not hate it but did not love it.” There will be several “OMG! Loooooved it!” (Said in […]

I’m a cat person, Beanie, but I still love you.

What’s Up Beanie?: Acutely Relatable Comics by Alina Tysoe

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When you see the title, What’s Up Beanie?: Acutely Relatable Comics and only see the word Beanie as that was the nickname of your best friend growing up (we meet the night before the first day of kindergarten and in true kid form the next day we said, “I know you! You’re my friend!” and the rest was BFFs for several years and a around 40-year off/on friendship) you know you must pick it up. The book starts with Baby Beanie, a four-year-old who comes […]

Family

Why Is Everybody Yelling? Growing Up in My Immigrant Family? by Marisabina Russo

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I had a small roller coaster ride of thoughts and feelings about the graphic memoir, Why Is Everybody Yelling? Growing Up in My Immigrant Family? At first, I thought, “Sounds fun.” Then, “Huh, what’s going on?” And “This is slow reading.” With, “Oh, yeah digging this, getting meaty.” Along with several, “If this was fiction nobody would allow such a stereotype!” And finally, “Well that was a ride. And that afterwards was a good roundup.”   Our narrator, Cookie is “the lucky one” of her […]

“One night. I just want one night of sleep”…”Is it that too much to to ask? One night where I don’t have to babysit or dig up a corpse?…”

The Past and Other Things That Should Stay Buried by Shaun David Hutchinson

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Part of my Simon and Schuster publisher online finds included The Past and Other Things That Should Stay Buried by Shaun David Hutchinson. A mouthful of a title that almost hides the plot of this young adult novel. The Past is a messy, quirky, simple and a modern teen novel. Even the unlikable characters can be likable. This is mostly since you can sympathize with what is going on, even if you have never been a reanimated, dead, best ex-friend. (Images are three of the […]

Let’s Go

Letting Go of Gravity by Meg Leder

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Letting Go of Gravity is a book with a very teen romance without some of the usual teen romance (she barely kisses the love interest, but there is a spark between them), and a book that is also dealing with family and expectations that they place on us and that we place on ourselves. Not all characters are a 100% likable as they can be typical characters; sometimes even almost stereotypical, but they are not horrible people either. There are several obvious plot points and […]

“When you’re twins, the magic just never ends” (Little Richard, Philip Bailey)

Twins: A Graphic Novel by Varian Johnson

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Twins: A Graphic Novel has two main elements that make it both familiar and new. Varian Johnson does the “twin thing” (two sisters who are best friends, know each other in ways even their parents cannot know, and are each other’s “partner in crime/fear/whatever is needed), but then makes a new twist with having a modern touch with a blended family of color. The story is simple: Two sisters; almost identical (one is slightly taller; this one has a scar) and best friends. That is […]



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