Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Do you Kitchen Dance?

Kitchen Dance by Maurie J. Manning

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Our narrator wakes up to odd noises one night. Getting up and waking her brother, they go to investigate. They go downstairs, following the sounds to the kitchen where they find their mother and father dancing, singing and having a good old time as they clean up for the night. But when our siblings are found out, will they be in trouble or will there be a big surprise for them? Kitchen Dance by Maurie J. Manning mixes in some Spanish (what the parents sing […]

Manners (and compelling eyes)

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Sophia wants one thing for her birthday. It is her One True Desire. She wants a pet giraffe. The problem is she has four roadblocks: her mother the judge, her father the businessman, her uncle Conrad the politician and her Grand-Mama who is strict. Presenting her case to each person one at a time, Sophia does not get any closer to her goal as she is informed that they are “too long” (or they are too effusive, loquacious or verbose) or have missing or incomplete […]

The Sisters who Changed the Game

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Game Changers: The Story of Venus and Serena Williams mostly focuses on the early years of the Williams sisters. It introduces us to the two girls who started learning tennis well before they hit double digits. We see how one sister followed the other, but one day would beat her big sister in the game they both loved. We are shown how these sisters are both sisters, friends and rivals all at once. And Game Changers shows the struggles of becoming not only two of […]

WWCTCD: When We Come Together to Celebrate Diversity

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All Are Welcome in Alexandra Penfold and Suzanne Kaufman’s picture book creation. Inspired by Kaufman’s daughter’s actual classroom, the diverseness of the school is presented in bold colors and variety of tools and techniques. The images show children wearing a variety of clothing that many children (and a few adults) are not familiar with: patkas, hijabs and yarmulkes. Of course, there are baseball caps, too. There are different types of families (two parents, one parent, grandparents, same sex and biracial families). And there are all […]

If We Don’t Eat Our Classmates, what is a poor Dino to Do?

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We Don’t Eat Our Classmates Penelope is told in Ryan T. Higgins latest book. But that is a very hard thing to not do, as she is a dinosaur and her classmates are all children. And children are ever so tasty! Higgins creates a new first day of school story with an absurd twist. As we are informed at the start (oddly enough by Penelope) dinosaurs are extinct and we will not get eaten by one, so we do not have to worry about that. […]

Mysteries According to Humphrey: A hamster

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It is usually not a good idea to start in the middle of a series. There are too many “back pieces of information” you are not privy to. Of course, for the adult reading, it is a good way to gage if the series is good. The first in a series can always be good. It sets the story up, so unless it is just plain bad, there is not a lot to complain about. But if you are picking up the series in the […]



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