Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time


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Exciting historical fiction for the kids

The Bletchley Riddle by Ruta Sepetys and Steve Sheinkin

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The Bletchley Riddle, a novel for readers age 10-14, was co-written by Ruta Sepetys and Steve Sheinkin. The two authors take turns writing chapters from the points of view of 14-year-old Lizzie (Sepetys) and her 19-year-old brother Jakob (Sheinkin). It’s a fast-paced, thrilling and educational mystery/spy novel set in the early days of WWII at Great Britain’s top secret location for code breaking — Bletchley Park. Sepetys and Sheinkin include tons of fascinating historical facts and real historical figures in their story. When the story […]

A story needed to be (but never should have had to be) told

Between Shades of Gray: The Graphic Novel by Andrew Donkin

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Between Shades of Gray: The Graphic Novel is a wow book! Adapted by Andrew Donkin, the Ruta Sepetys novel comes to life in a graphic novel format. The story of one family shows another side of world history, and how in World War II, the Soviet Union was not just fighting Germany, but its own people as well. It might not be for everyone as there is much in the way of concepts and content that might be difficult, even for adults. A little-known piece […]

“Silence warps everything.”

The Fountains of Silence by Ruta Sepetys

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I think I’ve mentioned this before, but I have a PhD in history, specializing in the USSR, and back in the day, I taught courses like Western Civ and the 20th Century. I thought I knew my European history pretty well, but a YA novel just showed me a glaring gap in my knowledge. The Fountains of Silence is set in Spain, 1957, and it revealed to me how unaware I was of the oppressive fascist regime that existed in Spain until the death of […]

Salt to the Sea

Salt to the Sea by Ruta Sepetys

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[spoilers for real life history events that you might not already be familiar with that affect our characters…] One thing that amazes me about World War II is how many stories remain untold. And that’s terrifying, because as we get further from that time, and lose more survivors, we are less likely to ever hear those stories. Ruta Sepetys’s Salt to the Sea focuses on refugees fleeing East Prussia, as the Red Army advanced. While her characters are fictional, their stories are real. “Guilt is a […]

Growing up in a brothel in New Orleans

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Out of the Easy (2013) by Ruta Sepetys was chosen as our next book for my book club. I’d never heard anything about it, but the many positive reviews were promising. Out of the Easy is a young-adult, coming-of-age story of Josie Moraine, a 17-year-old girl living in the French Quarter of New Orleans in the 1950’s. Josie is smart and good-hearted. She has dreams of getting out of New Orleans, but she has a lot of obstacles. Josie lives by herself, above a bookstore, where she has […]

A WWII story you never hear about

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Between Shades of Gray is a World War Two story that is not often told. It is the story of the Soviet Union’s occupation of  Lithuania, Estonia, and Latvia. The Soviets captured those who they saw as anti-Soviet, mainly the educated- doctors, lawyers, teachers, military servicemen, writers, business owners, musicians, artists, and librarians. These people were rounded up and murdered, sent to prison, or sold into slavery in Siberia. We follow the story of Lina, who is separated from her father, but is with her […]



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