Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time


Just a family tradition

Cemetery Game by Alan Woo and Rachel Wada

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Cemetery Game by Alan Woo and illustrator Rachel Wada is due September 2026 and was read via an online reader.  And now comes the more fun part of the review, but also a bit tricky to write. I was not a huge fan of things. I liked the idea of culture, family and traditions, but it felt flat. I liked the presentation, but the illustrations felt off, like maybe a bit computerized or not fully human formed. Yet, this is a nice book. It introduces […]

The Gale

The Gale by Mo Yan, Chengliang Zhu and Ying-Hwa Hu

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The Gale is a beautiful and sad story. It is also a unique story and the back story is as good, if not better, about how the inspiration came about. There was a lot of love that went into this story and creation of the book. Author Mo Yan, illustrator Chengliang Zhu, translator  Ying-Hwa Hu and adapter  Xiaoxiao Guan had their work cut out for them. This is a story that looks like it is going one way, but soon goes another. It blows around […]

Belonging

Until We Meet Again by Lily Kim Qian

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Until We Meet Again by Lily Kim Qian is thoughtful and reflective. Qian gives us a coming of age story of a young herself, who is a Chinese-Canadian girl who deals with her family dynamics such as her mothers mental illness, her mother and fathers volatile relationship, and dealing with growing up with a caring father, but one who is just doing the best he can, and the attitudes of immigrant parents and “old school” Chinese values vs her western world. The cultural differences of […]

I wrote the review ages ago, but left the wording in present tense

This Is How I Say I Love You: Little Bunny’s Bedtime Story Told in English and Chinese by Dayong Gan

The Most Beautiful Painting: Discover the Mystery of Chinese Script (English and Mandarin Chinese Edition) by Yajuan Lu and Jian Li

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As a kid I remember checking out several folktale books from the school library. As an adult I learned to appreciate them in a way I never could have as a kid. One thing was how similar stories can pop up in different cultures, or how stories can be adapted for another setting. The other is you can learn about a country as well. And while I am not sure if the two books in this review will fit any of the above categories, or […]

When am I going to learn just to read?

My Grandma the Chameleon by Maria Lofgren

The Together Treehouse by Michael Engler and Joëlle Tourlonias

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When am I going to learn that I will just need to read a book without second guessing my choice? Two books I did this too are My Grandma the Chameleon and The Together Treehouse. The first, My Grandma the Chameleon by Maria Lofgren had me, “Do I want to read this? Maybe… nah… well, oookay…” Now, granted, I was not OMG the best book ever when I finally did read (via an online reader provided by a publisher email, due in mid-April 2026) but […]

Round up at the O-K-bookstore

It Started with a Book Ban by Linda Ravin Lodding 

Tic-errific Me: A book about Tourette syndrome (Disability Books for Kids) by Alicia Meyers and Cait Brennan

The Kimchi Fridge by Tina Cho and Cindy Kang

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Round up time for my beloved picture books. All titles were read via an online reader copy.   BOOK ONE It Started with a Book Ban by Linda Ravin Lodding A fun and silly way to talk about the seriousness of the idea of Book Banning. And while I don’t promote banning things, I must admit sometimes the color green is annoying to me, too. (And pink, pink can be too cheerful).  Obviously Lodding uses humor to get the message across and goes into extreme […]



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