Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time


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Talking wordy to you

Maddie and Mabel by Kari Allen

The Magical Clay Doll : A Legend Retold in English and Chinese by Ning Sun

Maribel’s Year by Michelle Sterling

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Picture book round-up with a family and friendship theme attached to them! All titles are currently available but were read via an online reader copy. I like how the publisher copy of Maddie and Mabel by Kari Allen describes our young sisters, “two spunky sisters who navigate their relationship with humor and heart.” There is heart, some humor and a lot of spunk, but not everything is for everyone. The dynamic between the siblings is old fashioned, but is not dated. If you have a […]

Bronze Age Crete in modern tone

Minoan Wings V02 Swallow's Dance by Wendy Orr

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A companion to Minoan Wings V01 Dragonfly Song we follow a young woman on the eve of her first “bleeding” (mensuration) and what that means to her within her community in Minoan Wings V02 Swallow’s Dance. Several natural disasters mean that our narrators’ carefully ordered and privileged life is shattered. Eventually, these disasters leave her, her mother and their old nursemaid-slave homeless and alone in a strange new land. Realizing how her once higher status is now her greatest enemy, she must learn to put […]

Bronze-Age Crete

Minoan Wings V01 Dragonfly Song by Wendy Orr

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The novel Minoan Wings V01 Dragonfly Song is a contemporary toned story set in the Bronze Age. The historical facts were well researched by the author, Wendy Orr. And what is presented is not just the factual information, but also there is an arc about mythology and religion (such as the goddess worship vs the bull/masculine, the representation of the animals and nature), and one that feels like it has more modern ideas of equality and gender (the goddess, the mother,  the priestess, daughters). Though maternal ruled villages […]

The night parade is about to begin . . .

Tokyo Night Parade by J. P. Takahashi

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I am not really sure how I feel about the picture book, Tokyo Night Parade. After read I noticed there were several layers and the art needed its own reading. Taken on the surface, it is a sweet story about a young girl who wants to spend time with old friends from Japan, ones she has not seen since moving to New York. These friends are a bit different though, as they are the demons of Japanese folklore. And our young hero cannot see them […]

Stay curious my friend

We, the Curious Ones by Marion Dane Bauer

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The story We, the Curious Ones is a poetic look at how science was born. Well, that is how I interpret Marion Dane Bauer’s book (due early November 2023). The ways we start to look at the world changes as we gain knowledge from those who dared to question the norm. We realize things such as we are not the center of the universe, but a part of one. And other factual pieces of information we take for granted today. Mostly the story is straightforward, […]

Be the grandfather

My Grandfather's Song by Phùng Nguyên Quang,

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cbr15bingo Guide: We must be the guides for the next generations to keep the conservation of our world happening. My Grandfather’s Song at first seemed like it was going in one direction, but it does a slight turn. The beginning seems more of how nature is wild and therefore for us to learn from, but the turn comes when the narrator shows us how everything is connected and respect is given to the wild. We see all this with how the narrator grows. You will […]



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