Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time


Gift a read

Joy to the World: A Christmas Song by Sara Gianassi

Silent Night: A Christmas Song by Sara Gianassi

The Last Slice: A Three Kings Day Treat by Melissa Seron Richardson

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If you like giving books for the holidays, these two board books illustrated by Sara Gianassi are adorable! They capture the more traditional feelings and ideals of the season, but also are just nice books. Perfect for stocking stuffers, these are practically must haves for everyone. They do include the full text (or at least a few verses) of each song (therefore a few lines might not be as familiar to some people) and have the sweetest images for illustrations. Okay, maybe too sweet for […]

Slam poetry on the page

Composition by Junious Ward

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For full disclosure, I was about half way through this poetry collection when I started my review. I was not “feeling it” and put the book down. However, since then, I have read more. The poetry of Composition by Junious Ward is very subject focused and the style is mostly non-traditional with artistic language. Some poems are easy to read and understand as they are set in a traditional format, whereas others (such as the one that has been “blacked out” leaving only a few […]

Rabbit go home

Watership Down: The Graphic Novel by James Sturm

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Watership Down: The Graphic Novel adapted by James Sturm and illustrated by Joe Sutphin took Richard Adams’ novel and made it into a lovely book about the power of the people, and lovely illustrations that show the good and the darkness around them. The story is the one you know and maybe loved as a child, but I was fresh to the story for the most part. I knew that there would be rabbits and people had said it was dark, but other than that, I had […]

“In the name of all who can no longer speak, I send you love.” Kati Preston

Hidden: A True Story of the Holocaust, by Kati Preston

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The memoir/biography of Kati Preston, Hidden: A True Story of the Holocaust, is one of the most beautiful, and ugliest, pieces of literature I have read this year. The story, through the child eyes of Preston, is pure and honest, yet because it is adult Preston writing the actual story, there is some of that maturity included. The ugly of the war and things done is told in the words a child understands, slightly “sugar coating” it (they say the Russian soldiers are “hurting the […]

Swedish-Vietnamese siblings in space!

Children of the Phoenix Vol. 1: The Eye of the Storm  by Oskar Kallner

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I found the part novel-part graphic novel Children of the Phoenix Vol. 1: The Eye of the Storm to be a fun space adventure with typical tropes. It is due in mid-December 2023, with book two due in summer of 2024.  Oskar Kallner’s story was not as detailed as I had hoped (there is a bit more “tell than show,” and has some repetition. Plus, the science information relies on the reader knowing some of it or having an idea about things already) but it was […]

The witch and werewolf go to school and some other things…but it’s not a romance

The Weirn Books, Vol. 1: Be Wary of the Silent Woods by Svetlana Chmakova

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Where do witches go to school? Well if you are the kids in this book, and are a special kind of witch called a Weirn, you go to the school the humans do. Only at night, after everyone has left and magic makes it morph into a school for the magical creatures. All the usual suspects are there in Svetlana Chmakova’s graphic novel, The Weirn Books, Vol. 1: Be Wary of the Silent Woods, the mean girl (who used to be a friend and has […]



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