Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time


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His first day of kindergarten

The King of Kindergarten by Derrick Barnes

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The best part of The King of Kindergarten is it is just a story about going to kindergarten. There is nothing preachy or moral giving about it. There are great illustrations and a fun story about one young man’s adventures when he goes off to his first day of kindergarten. The not so best of The King of Kindergarten is it is just a story about going to kindergarten. While it has a more modern feel and tone than books of the past, there is […]

It is far. But there is no journey upon this earth that a man may not make if he sets his heart to it.

King Solomon's Mines by HR Haggard

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CBR11Bingo – School So the connection to Bingo here is that when I first got to grad school, I was a TA for a Children’s Lit class that mostly focused on the kinds of writing that Victorian children would have been exposed to in their childhood, when the concept of children’s writing was pretty slim in general. This book is an interesting artifact and an interesting historical text in terms of seeing what kinds of cultural teaching was happening through literature, especially as a time […]

This review does not do this book justice. I should have written OMG THIS IS AMAZING a thousand and two times

Speak: The Graphic Novel by Laurie Halse Anderson

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Twenty years ago, a book called Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson came out. A book about a subject we still do not really talk about today. Speak told the story of Melinda, a freshman in high school, the night she was raped and the fall-out from that. Speak: The Graphic Novel keeps to the feel and message of the novel. I was surprised at what I remembered but things I had forgotten came back and rediscovered other things. I think it has been rearranged a […]

Somehow I thought it would be cooler if animals went to school

If Animals Went to School by Ann Whitford Paul

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If Animals Went to School by Ann Whitford Paul and illustrated by David Walker is a cute story with some animals that are not always used in books (beaver) about going to school. Sadly, there is nothing new after that. Beaver is a bit reluctant to go to school, so he goes very slow. However, once there he learns that school is cool and does not want to go (this time) home. The small saving element is that some animal characteristics are used (the fox […]

Books about books, dance, reporters and scuba diving!

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Last night, I was looking at the box of (sadly) damaged books at work. I saw four I Can Read books. I have not read one in a while, so I picked them up. They average out to be a 2.5 for the four, but kids will enjoy and will be 5’s down the board. My biggest complaint with easy readers is companies do not have a uniform rating system. Publisher X might have these at a Level 1 but another would have them as […]

When your teacher is a mummy everything is under wraps

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The writing team of Jane Yolen and Heidi E. Y. Stemple have created numerous gems. Yet, Monster Academy is still in the coal stage. It greatly reminded me of the story Ghoul School by Kevin O’Malley. Had I read Monster Academy first, I would have probably preferred it, yet, I did not. So, if you like Ghoul School (previous reviewed here) you’ll like this (and the reverse is true too, of course). The premise is simple: a “naughty monster” (which of course, means that they […]



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