Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time


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Sailing with a cat, dog, parrot, rat and some humans

 Trim Sets Sail  by Deborah Hopkinson

Trim Helps Out  by Deborah Hopkinson

Trim Saves the Day. by Deborah Hopkinson

Trim Sails the Storm  by Deborah Hopkinson

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#CBR16SweetBooks  Binge (four books same series/read back-to-back) Recently I accidentally found myself bingeing a series when I found (in my old) online reading links to copies of Trim Helps Out and Trim Sets Sail by Deborah Hopkinson (the author of way too many wonderful books to name here) and illustrated by Kristy Caldwell (illustrator of some delightful other books such as two I enjoyed, Away with Words: The Daring Story of Isabella Bird and Flowers for Sarajevo). Both of the new found titles are from October 2023, and I read them out of order (as […]

The odd email that gave me my next read

Military's Most Powerful Powerful Tanks by Susan E. Hamen

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I am not a military person, though I have had family (past and present) who served, but it was not until my nephew joined The National Guards that the reality of The Military hit. I know some people think the Guards are not “real military” but coming from this aunt, those were real training drills he was doing, that was a real zip-line with no net over a very very deep ravine, and those were real bullets being shot at and by him. I’ve been informed he will […]

Just Walk Forward

Last Flight by Kristen Mai Giang

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From Publisher Description of Last Flight by Kristen Mai Giang: On April 24, 1975 the last flight out of Saigon, Vietnam carried over 400 people to the United States, six days before Saigon’s surrender to the North Vietnamese Army.  I was a few months old in April, therefore, I obviously have no memory of this happening. However, when I learned that the war was still basically going and I was alive for it, it was an eye opener. I had always heard about the Vietnam […]

ChooChoo! I’m going home!

The Train Home by Dan-Ah Kim

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I grew up in a town (not a city), in a house (not an apartment), but I had a sister who bothered me, parents who did parent stuff, and my grandparents lived upstairs. Thanksgiving and Christmas mornings I never slept in, not because of the excitement, but because my grandmother’s kitchen was over my bedroom and I could hear her mashing, chopping, and walking about (thin walls and a grandmother who got into her work make for an interesting combination).  But I can relate to […]

I tried to make a plane joke, but it didn’t land

Flying Machines: Howe the Wright Brothers Soared. by Alison Wilgus

Science Comics: Rockets: Defying Gravity. by Anne Drozd and Jerzy Drozd

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Learn about how we fly without wings through the voice of the Wright brother’s sister in Flying Machines: Howe the Wright Brothers Soared. The history of flight is introduced with, first a story presentation of the facts, and second with pages of the technical presentation. The use of color and details to separate these two sections helps alert you to the change. Part history and part science story, we meet not only the Wright brothers in this graphic novel by Alison Wilgus, but we also […]

Choo-choo ch’boogie

Two Little Trains by Margaret Wise Brown

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Like the Two Little Trains of the story, this story chugs along, building steam until you get to the end. It is here, it fizzles out. It just ends. There was nothing in between just watching the two trains go along the tracks. There is great potential for something to happen, but nothing does. Now, I am not looking for a train crash, but maybe a race where they tie. Or maybe people talking about how much fun they are having. Or maybe there are […]



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