Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Middle Grade Graphic Novel Grab Bag

Lunar Boy by Jes and Cin Wibowo

How It All Ends by Emma Hunsinger

Tiffany's Griffon by Magnolia Porter-Siddell and Maddi Gonzalez

Plane Jane and the Mermaid by Vera Brosgol

Sink or Swim by Veronica Agarwal and Lee Durfey-Lavoie

Beetle and the Hollowbones by Aliza Layne

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As much as I am very grateful to be in grad school, I really missed getting to read for fun and so when I came home, I promised myself I could have an unfettered bookstore shopping trip. The result was a basket of so many books that the checkout guy said “Wow,” and a good proportion of those were middle grade graphic novels, because I love them. Lunar Boy is a sweet coming of age story that follows Indu. He was found on the moon […]

A trio of romances featuring a rockstar, small town angst, and magical cooking

Midnight Duet by Jen Comfort

Georgie, All Along by Kate Clayborn

Basil and Oregano by Melissa Capriglione

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CBR15 Passport Challenge: New to you Authors – Jen Comfort, Kate Clayborn, and Melissa Capriglione Midnight Duet by Jen Comfort is a gender-flipped remix of Phantom of the Opera. Erika Greene seemingly had it all when taking on a lead Broadway role. She was a bit of a minx and slept with someone’s boyfriend, which led to a production light falling on her. She retreats to her family’s dilapidated opera house in Paris, Nevada, and vows to become a better person. She had a decent plastic surgeon […]

The perfect addition to an almost perfect story (Zutarra 4Eva!!)

The Promise (Avatar: the Last Airbender) by Gene Luen Yang

The Search (Avatar: the Last Airbender) by Gene Luen Yang

The Rift (Avatar: the Last Airbender) by Gene Luen Yang

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At the age of 41, I have finally seen Avatar: the Last Airbender, and boy, have I been fangirling out like a tweenager. I am a Zuko girly, a no-arguments Zutarra shipper, I made ATLA my library’s September theme (“Reading is Elemental” was the national theme but ALA went with Pixar… Psshaw), and I immediately dove into the graphic novel series (which I intend to read before continuing the journey in Korra). I was fairly familiar with these books as I have ordered them for […]

And What Comes After Bans?

Gender Queer: A Memoir by Maia Kobabe

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Read as part of CBR15bingo: gender and banned. Maia Kobabe is a non-binary writer whose book Gender Queer has been banned at many schools and libraries across the country.  It almost made perfect sense that when I saw I had to read a banned book on gender for this challenge, I’d get to Maia Kobabe’s work. Maia’s book seems to have been the spark that ignited the fires of book banning in Florida. I will not argue that most Americans have a complex understanding of gender. […]

Blancaflor and all the sh*t wives have to do

Blancaflor, The Hero with Secret Powers: ​A Folktale from Latin America by Nadja Spiegelman and Sergio García Sánchez

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Blancaflor is a folktale with Spanish and Latin American roots from a category of folktales called “Girl helps the hero flee.”  High John the Conqueror is an African-American version you may have read in Virginia Hamilton’s The People Could Fly. In this type of folktale, a man ends up being captured by a devil or magician, and has to complete a series of impossible tasks. But the devil/magician’s daughter falls for the hero, and helps him complete the tasks and escape with his life. TOON […]

Last of the Lumberjanes

Lumberjanes: End of Summer Adventure by Shannon Watters, Kat Leygh

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So it turns out the Lumberjanes series has reached its conclusion with volume 20: “End of Summer Adventure”. This series has had ups and downs and I think the conclusion is a little mixed. On the one hand, the questions that really need answering are resolved. For example, what’s up with Rosie, what’s really going on in the forest around the camp, and what’s the spooky bad thing that got released a volume or two ago. But then again, the actual reveals are kind of […]



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