Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time


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In a few months you too can love Poppy

A Way with Wild Things by Larissa Theule

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Because of the cover of A Way with Wild Things I was not sure about that little girl. Was she going to be funny? Smart? Something else? It looked like it could be fun, but how was the “wild” going to be presented? I quickly learned that this was a story about having a knack with nature, a story about a young girl who is a little anxious in the “real world” and finally how she might have been a wallflower once, but now she […]

“So Much for King Kong”

Primates: The Fearless Science of Jane Goodall, Dian Fossey, and Biruté Galdikas by Jim Ottaviani

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I had seen the book Primates since it came out in 2013 (hardcover) and 2015 (paper). I had no real interest in it at the time. It was non-fiction (which I have had a love-hate relationship with over the years) and judging by the cover, young and maybe a little preachy due to the subject. And while it is non-fiction, it is what I have started to call a non-fiction novel which allows stories to have the best of the novel-flow and the facts of […]

“This is a story of light and dark…”

Moth by Isabel Thomas

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My goal this year was to read more novels. But how can I when there are books like Moth by Isabel Thomas? This is an amazing non-fiction story about a particular moth and how it changed over the years. The cover is gorgeous. The illustrations are a unique combination of romantic, realistic and abstract. These contradictions help give the feeling of night and day and the surroundings, plus making a story. The moths are black and white, and the rest of the animals are in […]

Fly me to the moon!

Science Comics: Solar System: Our Place in Space by Rosemary Mosco

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I was never a science kid. However, if I had some of the graphic novels that First Second does for their Science Comics series, I might have been. And in the Science Comics: Solar System: Our Place in Space by Rosemary Mosco (illustrations by Jon Chad), we learn about the solar system in a clever and cute way. Two best friends, Sara (home sick) and Jill (trying to cheer her up by stopping her boredom) tell a story of how their pets (in true tongue-in-cheek […]

Sometimes you find a poem, sometimes it finds you

Daniel Finds a Poem by Micha Archer

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Daniel Finds a Poem by Micha Archer is almost a poem itself. It has some great illustrations that pop off the page. The colors (especially on the very last page) tell the story boldly. The idea of what a poem is more modern, flowery and more based in nature. While any age can have it read to them, due to the fact Daniel’s story is just his adventure to find what a poem is, the older child might appreciate the fact that a poem can […]

An homage to Granny, the world’s oldest known orca, who lived to be 105 years old!

Wild Orca: The Oldest, Wisest Whale in the World by Brenda Peterson

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Wild Orca: The Oldest, Wisest Whale in the World has a little quirk that at first, I missed (looking back, it was pretty obvious). The Granny the young girl speaks of is not her Granny, but Granny the orca whale that is the matriarch of three different pods of whales called J, K and L. My first clue something was up was the fact Granny might not show up if she was busy, and since she was busy being 105 years-old, that might be the case. […]



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