Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time
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And it’s Good Good Leroy um… White. Goodest ghost in the whole darn greenhouse

Leroy Has Something to Say by Emily Rosenthal and My Phuong Thai

February 9, 2026 by BlackRaven Leave a Comment

The picture book Leroy Has Something to Say by Emily Rosenthal and illustrator My Phuong Thai is a book that made me have a warm happy. Lately not a lot of books have made me feel warm happy. And that is okay. I mean, I am an adult and can handle adult subjects, but sometimes I need to tone the doom and gloom down to a mild roar. And after reading Leroy I was able to have a happy warm feeling.  The cover is super […]

Filed Under: Children's Books, Comedy/Humor, Fantasy, Fiction, Health, Poetry Tagged With: Emily Rosenthal, Emily Rosenthal and My Phuong Thai, family, friendship, ghosts, LGBTQ, My Phuong Thai, neurodivergent, siblings, Social Themes, Special Needs

BlackRaven's CBR18 Review No:42 · Genres: Children's Books, Comedy/Humor, Fantasy, Fiction, Health, Poetry · Tags: Emily Rosenthal, Emily Rosenthal and My Phuong Thai, family, friendship, ghosts, LGBTQ, My Phuong Thai, neurodivergent, siblings, Social Themes, Special Needs ·
Rating:
· 0 Comments

Wow

The Boy Who Said Wow by Todd Boss

September 24, 2024 by BlackRaven Leave a Comment

The Boy Who Said Wow by Todd Boss and illustrated by Rashin Kheiriyeh is currently available, but I read it via an online reader copy. Based on a true event (a 2019 Mozart concert performed in Boston, attended by a nine-year-old nonverbal child named Ronan)  this is a delightful story about the power of music and words. When a mostly nonverbal child experiences a concert for the first time with his grandfather, in the silence of the aftermath he expresses what he is feeling with […]

Filed Under: Children's Books, Fiction, Health Tagged With: concerts, music, neuro diversity, Rashin Kheiriyeh, Special Needs, Todd Boss

BlackRaven's CBR16 Review No:455 · Genres: Children's Books, Fiction, Health · Tags: concerts, music, neuro diversity, Rashin Kheiriyeh, Special Needs, Todd Boss ·
Rating:
· 0 Comments

Licking the wind

The Boy Who Loves to Lick the Wind by Finoa Carswell

May 31, 2024 by BlackRaven Leave a Comment

I love having a “book dealer” or aka the publishers who like to send me little gifts of books that I get to read then tell people about. One of these recent gifts was The Boy Who Loves to Lick the Wind by Finoa Carswell and illustrated by Yu Rong. And while I expected more actual wind licking (or what would pass as wind licking), what we do get is a fun and interesting story that includes a mixture of modern and classical tones to […]

Filed Under: Children's Books, Fiction, Health Tagged With: family, Finoa Carswell, friendship, neurodiversity, Social Themes, Special Needs, Yu Rong

BlackRaven's CBR16 Review No:245 · Genres: Children's Books, Fiction, Health · Tags: family, Finoa Carswell, friendship, neurodiversity, Social Themes, Special Needs, Yu Rong ·
Rating:
· 0 Comments

Painting makes her fly

Woodpecker Girl by I-Tsun Chiang and Chingyen Liu

October 3, 2023 by BlackRaven Leave a Comment

A while back I found a book from Reycraft Books that (at the time) was a future publication. And since I enjoyed it and the person I was dealing with was so delightful to work with (I had asked for a reader copy and we conversed via email for a bit), I have found myself wanting to read more Reycraft Books. I found the title Woodpecker Girl in my research. Locating an online sample of the book, I realized that was not enough. I said, Pretty Please Library Loan Please, to […]

Filed Under: Biography/Memoir, Children's Books, Health, Non-Fiction, Poetry Tagged With: art, Artists with disabilities, cerebral palsy, Chingyen Liu, disabilities, Emotions & Feelings, I-Tsun Chiang, I-Tsun Chiang and Chingyen Liu, painting, Social Themes, Special Needs, Taiwan, Yipei Huang

BlackRaven's CBR15 Review No:716 · Genres: Biography/Memoir, Children's Books, Health, Non-Fiction, Poetry · Tags: art, Artists with disabilities, cerebral palsy, Chingyen Liu, disabilities, Emotions & Feelings, I-Tsun Chiang, I-Tsun Chiang and Chingyen Liu, painting, Social Themes, Special Needs, Taiwan, Yipei Huang ·
Rating:
· 0 Comments

And this little Piglet came home

Piglet Comes Home: How a Deaf Blind Pink Puppy Found His Family by Melissa Shapiro

May 27, 2022 by BlackRaven Leave a Comment

When real Piglet the pup came home, they knew that the place was going to be their forever home. And unlike the humans of the picture book I read, the real-world humans, took a little more convincing. But either way, Piglet Comes Home: How a Deaf Blind Pink Puppy Found His Family was the result. Melissa Shapiro’s character bring homes a puppy. Well, at least the other dogs (all rescues) think it is a puppy. It is terribly pink, blind, and deaf. It looks more […]

Filed Under: Children's Books, Fiction, Non-Fiction Tagged With: animals, dogs, Ellie Snowdon, family, Melissa Shapiro, puppies, rescue, Special Needs

BlackRaven's CBR14 Review No:253 · Genres: Children's Books, Fiction, Non-Fiction · Tags: animals, dogs, Ellie Snowdon, family, Melissa Shapiro, puppies, rescue, Special Needs ·
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When One Book Closes, here are two others

Wild about Dads by Diana Murray

Little Monster Trucks GO! by Doug Cenko

I Will Dance by Nancy Bo Flood

December 16, 2020 by BlackRaven Leave a Comment

I cannot concentrate on long novels of late. When that happens (and occasionally it does), I turn to my picture books (hence why this is number 3 of a list of picture books today). No theme to these. Just three books I read, I liked and wanted to pass along to you. Wild about Dads  by Diana Murray (author), Amber Alvarez (illustrations) While I am giving this a 5, it is a 4.5 mostly because I wanted more! MORE dads and the things they do! […]

Filed Under: Children's Books, Comedy/Humor, Fantasy, Fiction Tagged With: Amber Alvarez, dads, dancing, Diana Murray, disabilities, Doug Cenko, family, friendship, Nancy Bo Flood, racing, Special Needs, trucks

BlackRaven's CBR12 Review No:405 · Genres: Children's Books, Comedy/Humor, Fantasy, Fiction · Tags: Amber Alvarez, dads, dancing, Diana Murray, disabilities, Doug Cenko, family, friendship, Nancy Bo Flood, racing, Special Needs, trucks ·
Rating:
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Recent Comments

  • Jaye Davidson
    on Failure to Launch
    I loved the book
  • vega-table
    on Let me tell you about your case, little girl
    Appreciating the author's perspectives is a good way to think about this book. (And there really isn't anything to complain...
  • LittlePlat
    on Let me tell you about your case, little girl
    By the sounds of it, if this book ended up on my holds list, I wouldn't complain; sounds like the...
  • person
    on This book, like a toot, if forced is probably s**t
    its a very interesting book, and also helps you imagine what school is like being the new kid, having bullies,...
  • Jen K
    on Lectures, Research Papers and Romance
    As Jonah would put it, “Relatable Content.”
See More Recent Comments »

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