Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

About bjornsnipe

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Books have been a part of my life from a very young age . I'm currently being ruled over by 3 cats (Rafferty, Bodhi Rook & Yersinia Pestis), who I can mostly get not to chew on book covers. Lately, I'll read anything, though Science Fiction and Romance will always be on the bottom of the pile.

bjornsnipe's Reviews:

A Bus On The Ocean Floor

The Magic School Bus on the Ocean Floor by Joanna Cole & Bruce Degen

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If you don’t know the Magic School Bus series (and if you don’t, my guess is you weren’t a child of the late ’80’s and up), it’s about a school class, their eccentric teacher Miss Frizzle, and the class trips she takes them on on the titled Magic School Bus. In this one, the class trip is to the shore; well actually, the ocean. The bus becomes at various times a submarine, a glass-bottomed boat, and a surfboard, depending on what is needed for the […]

“You must do something to make the world more beautiful.”

MIss Rumphius by Barbara Cooney

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This book tells the story of Alice Rumphius, who in the late 1800s longed to travel the world, live in a house by the sea, and do something to make the world more beautiful. After traveling the world (including Egypt, Indonesia, and Tunisia), an injury causes her to return to America, to a house by the Atlantic Ocean in Maine. However as she grows older, she wonders what exactly she can do that will make the world more beautiful. What she decides upon is wandering […]

A Bear Would Also Have Worked Here

East of the Sun & West of the Moon by Mercer Mayer

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East of the Sun & West of the Moon is a retelling of a Norwegian fairy-tale, slightly in the vain of a combination of The Frog Prince and the Psyche/Eros myth. It tells the tale of a farmer’s daughter whose father marries her off to a bear, a fact she isn’t very happy about. Her husband tells her that he will only come to bed after dark, and she is never to light a candle so as to gaze upon him. Quickly breaking that, she […]

Twas the Night

The Night Before Christmas by by Clement Moore, illustrated by Gyo Fujikawa

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What can one say about The Night Before Christmas? We all (or most of us), know the story about Saint Nick’s visit to a house on Christmas Eve, and the narrator’s observations of the visit. The Muppets even did a rendition of it (the fact that A Muppet Family Christmas is pretty much only available on Youtube is still a largest travesty standing in the way of my Holiday Movie enjoyment). This one stands out though because of the art. This was one of my […]

Sir George and the Dragon, but make it kid-friendly

Sir Small and the Dragonfly by Jane O'Connor (Author), John O'Brien (Illustrator)

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It’s a cute little story about Lady Teena, resident of the village of Pee Wee, who one day is kidnapped by a dragonfly. After the Butcher, the Baker, and the Candlestick Maker (a tried and true trio for all children’s stories) nope out of the quest (knaves, all of them) Sir Small, a knight smaller than a toothpick, rides off on his little pony to rescue her. I suppose that’s because Dragonflies will eat damsels? Or does it want to keep her just because? Not […]

“If you carry your childhood with you, you never become older.”

Roxaboxen by Alice McLerran, illustrated by Barbara Cooney

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There across the road, it looked like any rocky hill—nothing but sand and rocks, and some old wooden boxes. But it was a special place. And all children needed to go there was a long stick and a soaring imagination. Every once in a while, I pull one of my childhood books off the shelf to look through it again, because I love the art, or I still like the story. Roxaboxen is one book that I look at over and over again because of […]



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