Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time


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Reissues of dePaola

The Comic Adventures of Old Mother Hubbard and Her Dog by Tomie dePaola

Marianna May and Nursey by Tomie dePaola

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My quick journal entry mentioned the death of Tomie dePaola. I recently found, three new (to me books). I haven’t read Fight the Night, yet, but did get a chance to read Marianna May and Nursey along with The Comic Adventures of Old Mother Hubbard and Her Dog. Many know dePaola as both the author and illustrator of the book. However, he has illustrated several books for others. The Comic Adventures of Old Mother Hubbard and Her Dog was created by Sarah Catherine Martin as […]

I was sad that I didn’t like this more.

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I was disappointed in this.  I thought I would like more of it, and perhaps I would if I were more caught up on my nursery rhymes.  I recognized some of them, and a few were quite clever, but there were some I couldn’t place. After reading another Halloween book that was more to my taste, this felt a little lacking. We start off in a festive mood with “Boys and Girls, Come Trick-or-Treat,” which is based on “Boys and Girls, Come Out to Play”. […]

Getting in the Halloween spirit

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Mother Ghost: Nursery Rhymes for Little Monsters by Roland Garrigue is my go-to Halloween story this year. It is superbly funny and quirky and has the most fun illustrations to compliment the text. However, the illustrations are not for everyone. They do have a uniqueness that make them not have a “soft” Halloween look. A coworker of mine said that while she is sure they work well for the text, she was not really loving the illustrations. They are not completely realistic and are slightly […]

Lola and Friends

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As always, I wish there were “halves” to the rating system. This is a 4.5 and a strong one at that. But I am not “jumping up and down” and “omg this is on my BBF” (Best Book Forever) list. It is just a fun book. Kids will enjoy it and most adults will not mind re-reading. Megan Maynor has written a modern twist to nursery rhyme, “The House That Jack Built.” Not only is “Jack” a girl (our heroine Lola), she does not build […]

When in doubt, assume it’s about politics

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Have you ever wondered where some of our nursery rhymes came from, or what they really mean?  Some of them seem to be about pure nonsense, but there is more to them than meets the eye. After all, “nursery rhymes are full of sex, death, and cruelty” (xv).  The author makes a point that this is “not meant to be a scholarly exercise” (187), it’s more like a “Hey, did you know that…?” Like any good conspiracy artist, Roberts can find meaning anywhere, and sometimes […]



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