Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time


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Dare to be different and true to yourself

The Prince and the Dressmaker by Jen Wang

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Sebastian is a prince who, when looking in a mirror, sometimes sees a princess instead of a prince.  Sebastian longs to express this other side of himself but is afraid of the resulting reactions, particularly what his parents will think.  Frances is a low level seamstress in a shop.  She has daring fashion designs in her heart but the shop Frances works for does not share her artistic vision. Seeing one of Frances unique designs at a ball sparks an idea in Sebastian, to hire […]

We are never meeting….

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3.5 Stars After I read the lovely The Prince and the Dressmaker, I went looking for more books by the same author, Jen Wang. I found In Real Life, which she wrote with Cory Doctorow. I really liked his book Little Brother, but I never got around to reading the sequel. I liked this book too, but it was very preachy. The story is about Anda, who spends a lot of her time playing Coarsegold Online, an MMO where she is a badass redheaded fighter. […]

A wonderful twist that makes a better story

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So, I picked up this book based on narfna’s review.  I was surprised when I went to the library to pick it up how long it was.  I was thinking more of a picture book length, for some reason, but I was pleasantly surprised with how much of this there was to enjoy!   The first thing I noticed was that there are pattern pieces on all of the chapter titles.  I don’t actually know how to sew garments, but I’m wondering if there is […]

This graphic novel is cute as hell, and the art is beautiful. #CBRBingo

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This was so cute! I love Jen Wang’s art, and she’s apparently just as good at story as she is at bringing a world to life visually. The Prince and the Dressmaker is about Frances and Sebastian. Frances is a seamstress who accidentally catches the eye of the crown prince of Belgium, Sebastian. Sebastian has a secret. When no one is watching, he loves to wear beautiful dresses. He hires Frances to make some for him, but his plan to not show her his face […]

Troll the respawn, Jeremy.

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With a great writer and amazing illustrator at the helm and a great premise behind it, this should’ve been an easy home run. Alas, I cannot fully put into actual human words the full breadth and width and depth of my disappointment in this. If only this were a series instead of one single book that left me wanting.

Saved by the Art

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I wanted so badly to like this book.  Jen Wang’s artwork is so fantastic and it’s pretty much the sole reason I gave it three stars instead of two.  It’s a graphic novel with realistically drawn women/girls, it’s got a message, it’s about gaming; in theory, it’s everything I should love. Doctorow starts off with a great introduction that really resonated with me.  The internet has revolutionized modern day communication!  (Yeah!  The internet has cat pictures and stuff!)  With the internet, we now have so […]



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