Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

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 […]

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 […]

They adorably find you when you need them

Adorable Empire: A Graphic Novel by Laura Terry

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Adorable Empire: A Graphic Novel by Laura Terry is a nice solid 3. The story is not new (magical animals, being yourself, divorce, complicated family and friends relationships), but it is nice (I will repeat this word) and has a few points that keep it new for someone who has read a lot of this theme, but also does not deter a newbie to the flock of coming of age books. There are nice illustrations that are not WOW, but not blah either. Overall, it […]

To those of us who get the hiccups

A Cure for the Hiccups by Jennifer E. Smith

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I love that the author’s dedication is to the person who eats raw carrots and gets the hiccups afterwards. I thought  I was the only one that happened to.  So, this proves books help represent all of us in our times of need! And, oh, yeah, it also really helps if you have the hiccups, too.  This is a book that is fun, funny, clever, and deals with more than just  the hiccups. Seriously, A Cure for the Hiccups by Jennifer E. Smith and illustrated […]

Yes, There Are No Scripts. So It Is Written in the Script

Ghost Cities by Siang Lu

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Siang Lu’s Ghost Cities is the winner of this year’s Miles Franklin Award, which is Australia’s most prestigious literary award. It had also been sitting on my reader long before it got nominated. Reading about Lu’s win was the kick in the pants I needed to pick the book up and give it read through. And I’m really quite ashamed that I hadn’t done it sooner.  Ghost Cities is an imaginative and bonkers novel weaving together two tangentially related plots. The first unfolds in a […]

“Fine,” Grandpa said. “You fetch your evil Librarian mother from the jail. I’ll go warm up the giant penguin!”

The Dark Talent: Alcrataz vs. The Evil Librarians Book Five by Brandon Sanderson

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  After the events of the last book, The Shattered Lens,  Alcatraz Smedry and the ragtag army of relations and allies  must make their way to the heart of Librarian power to find the cure to Bastille’s and the Mokian’s comas: The Library of Congress. Alcatraz also has to stop his father, Attica, from implementing his plan of giving everyone in the world Talents like the Smedrys have, well had; Alcatraz broke them all in the big battle at the end of the previous book. […]



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