Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time


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No really they are a witch

Lola’s Super Club V02 My Substitute Teacher is a Witch by Christine Beigel

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Even if I had read book one of Lola’s Super Club (which I realized after starting this was book two with the subtitle of My Substitute Teacher is a Witch) I do not think I would have liked this book. While kids who like “kid gross humor” and fantasy drama/action/violence will enjoy, it will not be for everyone. I appreciate the attempt of Christine Beigel with their trying to make this book a “girl power superhero book” and using stereotypical “boy stuff” for the plot […]

Poetry and dogs and cats and wheelbarrows oh my

Love That Dog by Sharon Creech

Hate That Cat by Sharon Creech

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When I first came to work at the bookstore one of my coworkers had been in the business for several years (but not at “our” store) and one author he liked was Sharon Creech. I would read a few of her books because of his recommendation and the new one that had just come out. But I realized she was an author that wrote books you “liked or not” that book but not necessarily a “like or not” the actual author kind of author. I […]

As Chang says: Don’t Yuck another’s Yum

Geraldine Pu and Her Lunch Box, Too! by Maggie P. Chang

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Geraldine Pu and Her Lunch Box, Too! was not something that looked like a must read. Afterall, it seemed obvious: it was going to be about a girl who carries a lunch box and there will be some issue with it: classmates think she is a “baby” for having a lunch box. Or someone was going to bully her, and the lunchbox was going to take the brunt of the abuse. However, as the adage goes: Don’t judge a book by its cover. Geraldine is […]

Emmie is a Gem of a girl

Invisible Emmie by Terri Libenson

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Invisible Emmie is another gem in the author/illustrator series of middle school. Terri Libenson has taken her character Emmie and shown her through her own eyes. As well as showing some of the characters from the other books in a different light. When you see a person through another character’s eyes you start to get a bigger picture of the world Libenson wanted to tell. And that story is the world of middle school. Yet, each character is one that we know, want to be […]

A really good premise ruined by casual racism and poor characterization

A Deadly Education by Naomi Novik

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The Scholomance is not your typical school. And not just because it’s a school for magic. No, this school is not your average school because it will straight up try to kill you. Students have to stay alert constantly and travel in packs everywhere lest one of the evil creatures, or malefecaria, who live in the school try to kill them. Galadriel, or El, is a student at the Scholomance determined to survive all the way through graduation and do so on her own terms. […]

Obviously, this book is not for everyone

Rescuing Mrs. Birdley by Aaron Reynolds

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I either started and never finished Rescuing Mrs. Birdley or I have read it before. However, if it is a reread, I do not remember reading it the first time. This picture book review is as if this is the first and only time, I have read it. Our “animal expert” (solely by her word only) Miranda sees her teacher in the grocery store. Not unusual. I still run into former educators all over town. However, Miranda has the misunderstanding of what a teachers “natural […]



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