Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

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Fred, looking for friends in all the wrong places

Low Power: A Graphic Novel (Your Pal Fred) by Michael Rex

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Book one of the Your Pal Fred series opens with Fred waking after (I forget how many) centuries to a dystopian earth. He is a friendship robot who on the perky scale makes Sandy Duncan and Mr. Rogers look like grumps.  And in his very special way (being kind, talking things out, staring contests, etc) saves the day.  With volume two, Low Power: A Graphic Novel (Your Pal Fred) Michael Rex continues our Robot Friend Fred’s journey to make everyone friends. This time around we […]

Walk on the Wild side with magic

Amulet Volume 9: Waverider by Kazu Kibuishi

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The Amulet Series by Kazu Kibuishi was a big hit when it first appeared on the shelves of my bookstore, and I understood why, even though at the time I was just starting to get into graphic novels and fantasy was something I was reading again. It had a lot of pop and mystery. Things were fantasy, but had elements that were relatable, they even could be considered believable even though things were fantasy all the way. And the main character was also spunky and […]

Beautiful, harrowing and oh so sad

In Memoriam by Alice Winn

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CBR16 Bingo: Liberate (our protagonists are fighting in World War I to keep the world safe from the Germans) Official plot summary, because I finished this book in early April: It’s 1914, and talk of war feels far away to Henry Gaunt, Sidney Ellwood and the rest of their classmates, safely ensconced in their idyllic boarding school in the English countryside. At seventeen, they’re too young to enlist, and anyway, Gaunt is fighting his own private battle – an all-consuming infatuation with his best friend, […]

Tragically beautiful

The Naked Tree by Keum Suk Gendry-Kim

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The Naked Tree by Keum Suk Gendry-Kim and Janet Hong is a graphic novel adaptation of Pak Wan-Suh’s novel of the same name. I had no idea what the book was about, but the image of the cover of a young girl, with a wind-up key in her back was enticing. It also was as bit distributing. It gave me a feeling I knew what the book was going to be about, but when I was finally able to find a copy, it turned out […]

Similar looks, different stories

Mali Under the Night Sky: A Lao Story of Home by Youme)

Some Kids by Fifi Abu

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Two picture books to add to your libraries this fall are below. Each is different, but equally unique and fun.  November 2024 will find us with a published book titled Mali Under the Night Sky: A Lao Story of Home. Youme Ly Nguyen (or Youme) is the author and illustrator of this read via an online reader copy picture book. The story of a young girl fleeing her homeland because of war is not a new one, but the way Youme has spun their tale, […]

A heartbreaking but also heartwarming story

The Things We Cannot Say by Kelly Rimmer

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This book was recommended by a friend. I don’t normally read books about war, because I usually can’t get into them. And the ones that aren’t super detailed and technical (that I can’t get into) are usually just relentlessly sad, and that’s not my jam either! This book was none of that. Of course it was sad, but it was so incredibly filled with hope, and family, and people relentlessly trying to do the right thing that it made it all worth it. This book […]



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