Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

About crystalclear

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Crystalclear can usually think of something clever to say, except when she can't. She has a giant stack of unread books at home but will always find an excuse to buy/acquire/borrow another one. (Learn more about this Cannonballer: crystalclear's Quick Questions interview.)

crystalclear's Reviews:

This could have been so much better…

Pay the Piper by Jane Yolen and Adam Stemple

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Callie is a reporter for her school newspaper, and has landed a backstage pass to interview the band that’s playing in town, Brass Rat.  This is a big deal for Callie, who is only 14 and has wildly over-protective parents, which is strange given the names they saddled their children with.  These paranoid adults have given their children names that guarantee they will have difficulties in life.  I present to you: Marsepolus, Calcephony, and Nickelodeon.  In an era with cell phones, they named their youngest […]

I feel like this should be a YA novel, but it’s not

Gods of Jade and Shadow by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

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Gods of Jade and Shadow is a book where fairy tales and myths collide.  The book begins in a 1920’s version of “Cinderella,” but in Mexico.  Casiopea is a poor cousin of the richest family in their town, and she is given the role of maidservant while her mother is the cook.  Casiopea does as she’s told, but not necessarily as subserviently as her cousin Martín would wish.  One day while the family is away, she gets a chance to open up the forbidden chest […]

Hogwarts, but even MORE racist!

The Black Mage by Daniel Barnes, D.J. Kirkland

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I was intrigued when I saw this book come up on NetGalley, so I picked it up, but then forgot to read it, and then I was sad.  And I met the author and illustrator at the New York Comic Con, and they were really nice!  And then the library I work at got a copy, so I was the first one to check it out! Anyway…   On first glance, this looks like Harry Potter, but if Harry Potter was the only black kid.  […]

When the Internet called, this author answered!

Mrs. Perivale and the Blue Fire Crystal by Dash Hoffman

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Is this a great masterpiece of a novel?  No.  Is it the next great fantasy epic?  Also no.  Should you read it?  Yeah!  If not for the story itself, at least to support the way it came to be.  I’m going to put exactly what the text says:   @broodingYAhero said, “It’s amazing how many prophecies involve teens. You’d think they’d pick more emotionally stable people, with more free time. Like grandmas.” To which @Dinuriel replied, “…I would read the hell out of a series […]

I finally understand the struggle of non-English speakers who have to wait for books to be translated

Ghostsitter - A Crazy Inheritance by Tommy Krapweiss

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Okay, so this series is originally written in German. The first one was translated into English in an Audible Original (but not the other 7) and they made no attempt to Americanize it!  Hooray!  (They also never explicitly say they’re in Germany, which may have helped clear up some confusion in the beginning.)   Fourteen-year-old Tom is living his normal life with his adopted grandma when one day they get a notice that his great-uncle Heinrich has died, and Tom needs to attend the will […]

Being a superhero can cause super problems in a relationship

Super Adjacent by Crystal Cestari

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While this is a fun YA book about superheroes and the people who date them, it also brings up some relevant points about obsessions with celebrities. Switch out the superheroes with movie stars or singers and some of the issues that come up in this book can easily be seen in today’s society.   Claire is a fangirl, no doubt about it.  (She has good reason to be, up to a certain point.)  She follows the Chicago branch of the Warrior Nation superhero team obsessively […]



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