Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

They are not a cat, but not a bat. They are BATCAT!

Batcat V02 Sink or Swim! by Meggie Ramm

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Batcat V02 Sink or Swim! by Meggie Ramm is a cute sequel to Batcat V01 Batcat. I recommend reading all three volumes back to back. But Batcat V03 Cooking Contest is not due right away (it is due mid/later April 2025). I say this because I had forgotten some of volume one by the time I got to two.  I like the modern characters and interesting messages that the Batcat series gives, but I don’t always find the characters lovable. Sure a (SPOILER) vampire penguin […]

1998, Colombo. The Sri Lankan Civil War is raging and there is Kavi

I Am Kavi by Thushanthi Ponweera

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There are a few spoilers below about the book I Am Kavi by Thushanthi Ponweera.   Overall it is an interesting book. It had a few bumps for my personal tastes, but for the aged 10 and up crowd (and me back then) it is a will love title. The themes are mostly familiar, but the setting is fresh. You should read the afterwards and author notes for the extra background, information and author commentary. The format while prose poetry flows as full prose, the […]

Ching Ming Festival, or Tomb-Sweeping Day

Clear and Bright: A Ching Ming Festival Story by Teresa Robeson and William Low

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Clear and Bright: A Ching Ming Festival Story by Teresa Robeson and illustrated by William Low is currently available, but I read via an online reader copy. This book is a nice book on diversity. It is a fun read, not a WOOW BEST BOOK EVER (or WBBE) but it has a lot of great points. We learn about the Ching Ming Festival, or Tomb-Sweeping Day. We see how a family passes down their traditions to the next generation. As the publisher’s description says, our […]

“A metaphor is a kind o’ lie to help people understand what’s true.”

Wintersmith: A Tiffany Aching Adventure by Terry Pratchett

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Wintermsith is the third book book in the Tiffany Aching series, which is set in the Discworld universe, but is geared towards children. Tiffany is a witch in training who has caught the attention of the Wintersmith, the personification of winter, which you can kind of tell from the name. But don’t imagine some older, mature fellow; he’s more like if Jack Frost from Rise of the Guardians had no idea how to be human. So on top of learning to be a witch, dealing […]

Two reviews for you

Mary Had a Little Jam by Tammi Sauer and Vanessa Brantley-Newton

Pencil  by Hye-Eun Kim

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My recent picture book reading day included a lot of books. So many in fact that I had to break them into two different reviews. Also read and now included in this review were Mary Had a Little Jam by Tammi Sauer and Vanessa Brantley-Newton and Pencil  by Hye-Eun Kim. Well, Hye-Eun Kim’s book was more looked at than read as it is a wordless picture book. And still Pencil is something that I can write several words about. The fun part of this book […]

Countless dreams, countless nightmares, one eerie mystery

Nightmare Hunter #1: A Graphic Novel by Brady Smith

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I was looking at my online readers and found one for Nightmare Hunter #1: A Graphic Novel written and illustrated by Brady Smith. Due early April 2025, I almost waited to read it as the cover was not completely “grabbing me” and I was not sure it would be something I liked. It felt as if it would be too “out there,” trying too hard to be funny, going with the “gross out” and frankly, somewhat dumb and not funny, so-called humor. Instead we get […]



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