Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time


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Historical Fiction Graphic Novel in Translation

Surrounded: America’s First School for Black Girls, 1832  by Wilfrid Lupano, Stéphane Fert (illustrator)

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Along with From the Stars in the Sky to the Fish in the Sea I picked up Surrounded: America’s First School for Black Girls, 1832 from the library to help (hopefully) re-set my reading brain. This is a graphic novel in translation (originally written and published in French) which is focuses in on a more unknown bit of American history. I feel comfortable calling it such as this is one of my general areas and this school and the court cases surrounding it had missed me, even though Crandall v. State (of Connecticut) was one of the first civil rights […]

“The town of Stony Lonesome spreads like scrambled eggs. It spills, runny, over the hot desert pan, but then heaps up all around you, making this place feel smaller than you thought.”

Gumshoe by Brenna Thummler

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I was unsure about this when I saw it in the bookstore, but I’m glad I gave it a chance because I ended up thinking it was quite good. Sometimes it’s good to push through my initial negative reaction! Gumshoe is a magical realist middle grade/YA graphic novel (definitely appropriate for middle schoolers, but it’s dense and complex enough that I think it’d be good for the YA reader as well) about Willa, who has intense social anxiety and wants more than anything to be […]

“Why do I even go to school? What’s the point of all this?”

Red Threads by Ila Nguyen-Hayama

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Another random bookstore find that I really enjoyed. I always am hoping and checking for more YA graphic novels since fewer come out than those aimed at middlegrade readers, and this is aimed at around 14-15. Red Threads is about Hana, a high schooler from Tokyo who helps save a crow and then gets offered a scholarship at the Benten School of Esoterics, a fancy boarding school. On the train to the school, she meets another new student, Yoomi, a girl from Kansai whose family work […]

A Cozy Low-Stakes Graphic Novel

The Baker and the Bard by Fern Haught

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I picked this up for the Trans Rights Readathon. I didn’t realize it was happening until pretty late, so I wanted a book I could read quickly, and this short graphic novel fit the bill. It’s a fast-paced, cozy YA fantasy, though I would say it reads as young YA and could potentially be suitable for late middle grade. But adults can enjoy it, too, as I did. The book is set in a fantasy land that seems to include both human and non-human species […]

Werewolf Pack Dynamics

Full Shift by Jennifer Dugan, Kristen Seaton

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So imagine if you were a female teenage werewolf, who felt like an outsider even among your pack.   And imagine if you happened to think you were making a supernatural connection with your crush, a girl you’ve known since grade four, but it turned out to be a bit of a miscommunication.  And imagine what if your dad had passed away (being a werewolf, does not exempt people from death) and you are trying to deal with that?  On top of all that what if […]



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