Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

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The story in grandmother’s attic

A Family Secret by Eric Heuvel and Lorraine T. Miller

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Due to the familiarity of the story presented in A Family Secret by Eric Heuvel and Lorraine T. Miller (Translator), things were not as impactful as it could have been. However, if this is your first or near first time reading a WWII / Holocaust story, it is good. The images are busy, so take your time with them. The ending is a smidgen idealistic, but it’s also a nice touch. I am now curious about the sequel / companion graphic novel. I would have […]

During World War Two, in the concentration camp Terezin, something grew

The Tree of Life: How a Holocaust Sapling Inspired the World by Elisa Boxer

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The Tree of Life: How a Holocaust Sapling Inspired the World by Elisa Boxer and illustrated by Alianna Rozentsveig was not what I expected. I think I assumed it would be a lot darker than it was, but oddly enough, it is a hopeful introduction to the subject and one that does offset the darkness of the situation and times.  Perhaps things are a bit more poetic than the actual events were (a teacher in Terezin risks her life to ask another prisoner (also risking […]

Stuck or unstuck in time

Slaughterhouse-Five, or the Children's Crusade: The Graphic Novel by Kurt Vonnegut Jr and Ryan North

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WTH did I read? I admit, a lot of the graphic novel Slaughterhouse-Five, or the Children’s Crusade, went over my head. But that just means I need to read it again as this is not something  that can be taken in all at once. The artwork is what really grabbed me this first reading. There was a lot going on, but it did not always feel “fleshed out” and there were things missing, yet, there was also too much going on as well. The lack […]

Toronto: If you make it there, you can be a Comic Book Star (1939-1945)

War Bears by Margaret Atwood

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People study the history of a nation. They study the history of that nation’s literature. They study how wars happened, the facts during and the aftermath. But do they ever write about the history of the Comic Book? The Graphic Novel? War Bears is an homage to “The Canadian Whites” and a history of World War Two. Moral back home was important, but also important was the moral of the troops. And the comics that “boys (and gals) back home” made kept spirits up. And […]

One of the Untold stories of World War Two

Under the Broken Sky by Markio Nagai

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I was taught that if writers have a negative comment about what they are reviewing, they should start with a positive comment. However, I am going to be a rebel and start with the negative: If I have one complaint about Under the Broken Sky by Markio Nagai it is that the language is too modern. The contemporary voice of the narrator occasionally took me out of the (historical) moment, making me backtrack to get back to Manchuria mid-1940s. Now that is over, the good […]

If you wonder what the Irish were doing in World War II this might answer it….

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This is the Award Winner. The Dorothy Canfield Fisher award is a Vermont state award that the books are picked by adults (though I am not always sure why they were the pickers as one was a professor at my college who had no English or child background that I knew of) and then voted on by the kids. Of course, the year I did this award the “cool kids” pick won. But that is the perfect lead in to this book. It is 1943. […]



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