Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time


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“The AUDACITY of society to infuse ‘manhood’ into a child’s life.”

All Boys Aren't Blue by George M. Johnson

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I read this “memoir-manifesto” during Banned Books Week, and at one point while I was looking up something about it, I saw that a school board member had filed a complaint with the sheriff’s office after finding this book in a few school libraries. Yes – she basically called the cops on a book. And an important book, at that. It was a stark reminder of why it’s so important to read banned books, not just during one week in October, but year round. And […]

CBR15 Bingo: Queer Lives (Bingo)

All Boys Aren't Blue by George M. Johnson

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CBR15 Bingo: Queer Lives In July, the Forever Young Adult Reading Challenge prompt was Banned Books. Since All Boys Aren’t Blue was the second most banned book in America during the 2021-2022 school year, only beaten by Gender Queer, and I’d had the book on my digital bookshelf for a while, it felt like a suitable book to choose. This book was also one of the book club selections last year for the Cannonball book club, when we did banned books (this year we did […]

To Thine Own Self Be True

All Boys Aren't Blue by George M. Johnson

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All Boys Aren’t Blue is George M. Johnson’s memoir manifesto. I’d been hearing about it since it was tragically banned in way too many US states. Well, jokes on those haters who are way too obsessed with censorship. It was picked in September for my Mocha Girls Read book club and our Cannon Book Club. Through a series of essay chapters, we learn about George’s life from childhood to now. We learn about their identity issues that started with their name. In early childhood, the […]

The moments of his life, shaping us all

All Boys Aren’t Blue by George M. Johnson

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I bounce between a 3.5 and 4 with All Boys Aren’t Blue as the flow of things sometimes was off for me. However, the subject is very good, and I think could be valuable to even those who have not/or will not follow a similar path as George M. Johnson. Even though his intended audience was not exactly aimed at someone like me, I was able to appreciate his voice and his story. For sure this is not for the very young due to language […]

We are the living that have always been here but have been erased.

All Boys Aren’t Blue by George M. Johnson

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I am pulling from a few recent books to construct this thought about All Boys Aren’t Blue and why this book is necessary. Empathy is a necessary component of understanding that other people have value. Empathy requires imagination and imagination needs at least a few points of reference. George M. Johnson’s memoir manifesto is their story of being black and queer in America. Their story is not intended to be the story, but a story that opens the doors for readers to find their own […]

down to the wire (as always) – BOOK CLUB TIME!

All Boys Aren't Blue by George M. Johnson

The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas

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Why did I wait so long to read these two? This isn’t just a question of Book Club procrastination; this is a “what was I thinking?” moment! I had heard good things about both, I was enraged as ever when they (and others) showed up on lists of challenged and banned books, and they were both available on scribd! Also- why did I treat these books like homework? “oh man, I have to read these before I can move on to other things”- at the […]



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