Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

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A Favorite Author’s Beginnings

Guardians of Dreamdark: Windwitch by Laini Taylor

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Laini Taylor is one of my favorite authors, and I had been wanting to read her debut novel for a while, so I finally picked it up when it was re-released. As expected, I enjoyed the writing, and I loved the whimsical worldbuilding, such as cheroot-smoking, brandy-drinking crows. Those kinds of details are so specific and unexpected, and they create a strange but lived-in world. While the book is rated for middle grade, it could easily cross over into early YA due to the complexity […]

Very Cute Middle Grade Fantasy Graphic Novel

My Sister the Werebeast by Alina Tysoe

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This is a very cute middle grade graphic novel that hits many of the themes I enjoy — school narrative, siblings having to work together, magic, and actually supportive adults so that the kids don’t have to do things all on their own. Mira and Rosie have been left to look after their little sister, Peanut, while their parents are off on an adventuring expedition. This is a world in which there used to be magic, but it supposedly vanished hundreds of years ago after […]

“But all’s well that ends well, and if your adventure is successful, all those little problems you had will soon become very funny to you indeed.”

Nell of Gumbling: My Extremely Tiny Forest Adventure by Emma Steinkellner

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This is the charming sequel to the first Nell of Gumbling book. The series takes place in a fairy tale based town, but it’s just normal life for everyone and the focus is more on the power of community and learning positive lessons versus the magical elements. I like this sort of everyday life within a fantasy world, so the setting really works for me, and Emma Steinkellner’s art is perfect. In this volume, Nell is going to do a summer camping course (the Wilderness […]

Magical Reads That I Come Back To Again and Again

The Magicians of Caprona by Diana Wynne Jones

Witch Week by Diana Wynne Jones

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I think I’ve already extolled the virtues of this series at length here before, so I’ll just say that this is one of my favorites of all time and I am completely biased in favor of these books. I am a lifelong Chrestomanci fan and re-read a couple of these about once a year. This year I took on The Magicians of Caprona and Witch Week, which I was less obsessed with as a kid so I don’t remember the plots quite as well, which […]

It was super weird finally continuing this series.

Song of the Wanderer (The Unicorn Chronicles, #2) by Bruce Coville

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I didn’t have the experience of reading this first as a kid, so my reactions are entirely coming from adult Ashley on this one. I mentioned this in a GR status update, but having initially read that first book back in 1994, it felt incredibly strange to finally be picking up the thread of the story again after 28 years. First, my main complaint on this one, and the reason it’s getting 3.5 stars (rounded up): I wasn’t a huge fan of the writing itself, […]

Revisiting a childhood favorite so I can finally finish the series, twenty-eight years later.

Into the Land of the Unicorns (The Unicorn Chronicles, #1) by Bruce Coville

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Let’s step in to the Wayback Machine for this one. 1994! Bruce Coville was very in at the time, at least in my circles. You know, the ones featuring nine-year olds. We all coveted those books that implied our teachers were aliens, or whatever. But Coville didn’t just do wacky, humorous sff, he could also do straight epic fantasy. Enter this book, which I read approximately ten thousand times (though I settled on marking that as 10 in Goodreads). Twelve year old Cara is pulled […]



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