Cannonball Read 15

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

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Dreams of an Extraordinary Life.

The Dress and the Girl by Camille Andros

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In The Dress and the Girl by Camille Andros a young girl dreams of having an extraordinary life. While wearing her favorite dress her mother made her, she goes and enjoys the simple life of her village: watching the sunset, doing chores, picking flowers, going to school, playing and riding in wagons. One day, her family takes a special trip. They are emigrating to a new country. And while the girl and dress still play and go to school, instead of a wagon they are […]

Ants are not the only uninvited guest here!

Picnic with Oliver by Mika Song

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The cat-and-mouse game has a new twist with best friends Oliver and Philbert. They are the main characters in Picnic with Oliver (a companion sequel to Tea with Oliver). They are two unusual best friends who go out on a picnic, despite that it looks like it might rain. This, of course, means trouble for our friends. Mika Song creates a lovely story of friendship, adventure and adaptability. While having read the first book might have filled in a few “holes in the story” this […]

First Day of School and Not all is Well!

Twig by Aura Parker

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Heidi is a stick insect. She is like the twig of a tree: tall, long and brown. And today is her first day of school. She knows she will learn a lot and make lots of friends. However, when she gets to her new school, no one sees her! That is, until a very unfortunate mistake occurs, and Heidi has finally had enough. I love the illustrations in Twig by Aura Parker. The story I am still mulling over. I think it needs a re-read. […]

The Stars Never Disappear

In Sight of Stars by Gae Polisner

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In Sight of Stars by Gae Polisner took a bit for me to get through. Mostly because it deals with some very tough subjects: depression, suicide, family and love. Filled with many great observations there are some clichés as well. These can be overlooked due to the nature of the story. These also help break up the tension of a typically over dramatic teenager mentality. (Spoiler) The clues are there as to why the father commits suicide, why the mother is the way she is, […]

Manners (and compelling eyes)

One Word from Sophia by Jim Averbeck

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Sophia wants one thing for her birthday. It is her One True Desire. She wants a pet giraffe. The problem is she has four roadblocks: her mother the judge, her father the businessman, her uncle Conrad the politician and her Grand-Mama who is strict. Presenting her case to each person one at a time, Sophia does not get any closer to her goal as she is informed that they are “too long” (or they are too effusive, loquacious or verbose) or have missing or incomplete […]

WWCTCD: When We Come Together to Celebrate Diversity

All Are Welcome by Alexandra Penfold and Suzanne Kaufman

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All Are Welcome in Alexandra Penfold and Suzanne Kaufman’s picture book creation. Inspired by Kaufman’s daughter’s actual classroom, the diverseness of the school is presented in bold colors and variety of tools and techniques. The images show children wearing a variety of clothing that many children (and a few adults) are not familiar with: patkas, hijabs and yarmulkes. Of course, there are baseball caps, too. There are different types of families (two parents, one parent, grandparents, same sex and biracial families). And there are all […]



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