Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Buck some stereotypes and be you

My Guncle and Me by Jonathan Merritt

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I saw the title on my online reader list (though it is available), My Guncle and Me. Okay, (I thought) another gay uncle story. Cool. There are a few for kids, usually the uncle is pretty flamboyant, and that’s the moral of the story (it’s okay to be you), but let’s see if this is different. And, it is. Yes, the uncle is still flamboyant (not “as flamboyant” as say the drag queen uncle in the book, Auntie Uncle: Drag Queen Hero by Ellie Royce […]

Fun with haiku

A Pond, a Poet, and Three Pests by Caroline Adderson

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I found myself on an online picture book reading frenzy awhile back. I read (or wanted to read, or have read previous) several books by this one publisher, Groundwood Books. One of those books was A Pond, a Poet, and Three Pests by Caroline Adderson and illustrated by Lauren Tamaki. This book is an artistic imagining of how a famous poet wrote one of his most famous haikus. In simple, but far from simple text, there is an actually in depth story about the Japanese […]

What would you do for your sister?

A Friend for Lucy by Jen-Ai Elena Molineaux

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When I started to write this review, I had eaten too much sugar. I was on a bit of a sugar-high-buzz that was making me a bit too “up” and slightly feeling off. So, I was nervous this book would be too sweetly reviewed or I would maybe dwell too much on how sweet it was. After all, A Friend for Lucy by Jen-Ai Elena Molineaux is a sweet book. It is also a clever story of friendship between different generations and how family can […]

Misfortunes is an understatement

The Many Misfortunes of Eugenia Wang  by Stan Yan 

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TITLE:  The Many Misfortunes of Eugenia Wang AUTHOR / ILLUSTROR Stan Yan Read via an advanced reader copy DUE September/late October 2025    Review: This is an interesting coming of age story with a potential supernatural element. I mean potential because is a ghost really talking to Eugenia, or is it just a normal fear manifesting itself? There are modern pieces that are mixed with the tradition of a Chinese family. And as Eugenia starts to become a teenager, she questions some of her mothers […]

Discover the Moonlight Zoo

The Midnight Zoo by Maudie Powell-Tuck

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Author Maudie Powell-Tuck starts in the middle of the story in The Midnight Zoo where we learn Eva has lost her cat Luna. Eva has looked all over and taken all sorts of actions to find them. Of course, as bedtime comes around, and Luna is not found, Eva is obviously distressed. Then, in what you can believe is a real event, or a dream, Eva finds herself at the titled zoo, where the animals help her look for said cat. Overall, things are whimsical, […]

Required guts, courage, and bravery… So of course she was a woman!

Lighthouse Ladies: Shining a Spotlight on Hardy Heroines by Kris Coronado

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When you see a title like Lighthouse Ladies: Shining a Spotlight on Hardy Heroines you might wonder if there really were enough people to fill a book. Well, it sounds like you could fill a book on any one of the four women who Kris Coronado highlights. Instead they take four real life women who saved lives, tended to the light houses, and dealt with other issues and situations. We follow Ida Lewis, Juliet Nichols, Venus Parker, and Julia Toomey who were women who were […]



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