Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time


Columbian Mythology and Family Trauma

The Enchanted Life of Valentina Mejía by Alexandra Alessandri

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Valentina, her brother Julian, and her father are hiking the Columbian jungle to track down a vampire. Well, that’s what her father’s doing. Valentina is along for the ride, trying not to be embarrassed about her father and brother’s belief in Columbian folk creatures, and taking the opportunity to practice her drawing. But during the trip, Valentina has a visceral premonition: “The earth is not happy.” She urges her family to leave, but they are caught in a violent earthquake. The kids and their dad […]

The wild world of wildlife

Grandmother Fish: A Child's First Book of Evolution by Jonathan Tweet and  Karen Lewis

Don't Eat the Cleaners!: Tiny Fish with a Big Job by Susan Stockdale

The Search for Carmella by Chloe Savage

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Education, CBR17 Pie Chart Challenge One Monday morning I get into work smidgen later than usual, so my whole system is just off. During a moment of situating myself, I see that there are some books on the cart for the children’s floor. On top of a pile was a book of a red colored fish. It said “Grandmother Fish” and I thought, “Well it could be a cute story.” However, I only saw the first part and not the whole title: Grandmother Fish: A […]

Sometimes the Real Treasure is the Monsters We Made Friends With Along the Way

Wearing the Lion by John Wiswell

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Heracles may be the son of Zeus, but he does all his deeds in the name of Hera, the goddess of families. When he is struck with madness by a mysterious god and kills his children, he’s sure Hera will return that devotion and help him gain revenge on whoever it was that did it – not realizing that she has hated him all along. Greek mythology retellings have been in vogue in the last few years, following heroes and villains alike and reinterpreting their […]

She’s not the spirit we wanted, but the one we needed

Zawa + The Belly of the Beast by Michael Dialynas

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I was a few pages into Zawa + The Belly of the Beast by Michael Dialynas when I said, “I think this might be a rating of four.” I was not sure why, but the humor and story up to this point made me think I was going to really really like it. Well, I did enjoy it, but not really really liked it. As the story went along, there were some missing pieces, and I was not liking some of the characters (the ones […]

Just a piece of the puzzle

Issunboshi: A Graphic Novel by Ryan Long

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Picture it: Feudal Japan where creatures of myth and folklore are real. You can liken it to some Western stories (which came first? I do not know, but I assume the Asian ones) and the adventures our tiny hero has will meet the pages with clever text and images. This graphic novel, Issunboshi: A Graphic Novel by Ryan Long, unfolds in quick layers. There are a few surprises, but for the most part, you know where things are going. The idea of “you do not […]

We come from the land of the ice and the snow

The Shadow of the Gods by John Gwynne

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I don’t track my reading by diversity the way some do, though I am curious what the stats would be. I definitely have a few auto buy authors that are also men, like John Scalzi, but my reading heavily skews towards women … YA fantasy and romance will do that. Still I ended up picking up some fantasy novels by men last year, and figured it was time to finally read a few of them, starting with this first book in a now completed series. […]



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