Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

I was going to send all the spider pictures to my sister, but she’d unalive me….

The Spider Lady: Nan Songer and Her Arachnid World War II Army by Penny Parker Klostermann

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Disclaimer: Realistic spiders are drawn in the book The Spider Lady: Nan Songer and Her Arachnid World War II Army by Penny Parker Klostermann and  Anne Lambelet. It is due early May 2025, and was read via an online reader copy. OMG! Now, if you do not like spiders, you probably should not read this book. However, I wish you would. Yes, there are spiders (a lot of spiders) but the art of Lambelet makes them so darn cute!  I mean, I’d cuddle with them…. […]

The moans and groans coming from me were from narrowing down the images I wanted to us

Skeleton Bones and Goblin Groans  by Amy E. Sklansky and Karen Dismukes

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I enjoy poetry, but I prefer children’s poetry to adult poems (unless the poetry is a bit more straight forward and not too “fancy”). In Skeleton Bones and Goblin Groans  I figured it would be either overly spooky, or overly silly. Now, it never really got too spooky (but it does mention a vampire having a bite) but it is silly. For the most part it never gets overly silly, but it is silly. You read about skeletons, ghouls, and more. The rhyming and humor […]

Which pollinator has the shiny hiney?

The Great Pollinator Count by Susan Edwards Richmond

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The subject in The Great Pollinator Count by Susan Edwards Richmond is not new, but the presentation is fresh and gives the information in an informative (even I learned a few things; such as how to know which pollinator has the shiny hiney) but it is also done in a fun manner. Learning to count the insects, learning about the plants included and more make this a clever book. I wish the illustrations by Stephanie Fizer Coleman were a bit more realistic, but they work […]

Jump on the Earth Train

Jumper: A Day in the Life of a Backyard Jumping Spider by Jessica Lanan

The Day the River Caught Fire: How the Cuyahoga River Exploded and Ignited the Earth Day Movement by Barry Wittenstein

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Science and history can be a fun subject for kids. However, it always seems that people hit on the same historical event or scientific areas. Therefore, I am interested when I find books that do not cover the “same old same old,” or find a fresh take on an old favorite. While both books are available, I read them via online reader copies. When I saw Jumper: A Day in the Life of a Backyard Jumping Spider, My first thought was, “Oh a spider.” My […]

I might pick on the frogs in this review but there is an elephant too

It's Tough to Be Tiny by Kim Woolcock

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What if I told you that being small was not as bad as it might seem? In fact, it can be cool. Oh sure, we vertically challenged people might not be able to reach the average height shelf in the store and have to smile nicely to the tall gentleman for assistance, but if you were some of the animals in It’s Tough to Be Tiny you would be the cat’s meow, bees’ knees and frog of the bog! Kim Woolcock writes about the tiny […]

These Spiders Are Not Deserving of Your Mortein – but Your Love

Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky

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  Do you like spiders? I like spiders. I don’t believe spiders deserve the bad rap they get. Some spiders are easier to share space with than others – like the seven-legged, fly-scoffing huntsman that seem to reside in every Australian household. They are good spiders. These seven-legged huntsmen are often called Fred. Another generation, another Fred. Do you know who else likes spiders? Adrian Tchaikovsky likes spiders. He loves them so much that he made them the protagonists of his very original evolution-based novel, […]



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