Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Talkin’ ’bout my best friend

Built to Last by Minh Lê,

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Built to Last by the fabulous author, Minh Lê, and the amazing illustrator, Dan Santat (no, I’m not biased at all), is an adorable story about friendship and the true and important things that cannot be broken. Sure things might fall and crash, and that can sometimes be funny, but there are few things that cannot have a do-over. Most things are able to have a fresh start, mostly because you have learned from any mistakes and know what is really important. The narrator is […]

Zombies, and cops, and religious zealots, Oh My!

Revival: Deluxe Collection, Volume 1 by Tim Seeley

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Do you like horror with romance, religion, horrific secrets and one crazy (and dead) poet? Then, you probably should read Revival: Deluxe Collection, Volume 1 (which includes volumes one to eleven). The gore and violence is borderline gratuitous at times and other times goes well over the decency mark. There is sex, drugs and probably some rock and roll (but I was too busy covering my virtual ears from the saw that’s (spoiler) chopping up a body, to notice). If you have any kind of […]

One curse, one family, a lifetime of growing up

Salt Magic by Hope Larson

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Salt Magic by Hope Larson and illustrated by  Rebecca Mock is an experience book. You read it, you have an experience. Mine is different from yours, and yours is different from the third guy’s reading. Things are if Alice in Wonderland met Wizard of Oz and something else…. I can’t put my finger on it. The artwork is the main character, though we are being told the story which is narrated, in text, by a young girl in the years right after World War I. […]

Be Our Guest as your dreamer doesn’t rest

Hotel REM by Zack Keller

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When I read about Hotel REM it sounded like it was going to go in a completely different direction than what the actual graphic novel turned out to be. It also had a different feeling from the cover. And while, yes you can find some of the story out from the cover, this is a book that also is one that you should not judge it by the cover. Zack Keller wrote an interesting coming of age story. The colors and details of the illustrations […]

A special cup of tea

The Amazing Leaf in the Cup: A Tale of Tea Retold in English and Chinese by Yiping Wei

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It is probably a copout to just copy and paste the publisher’s description of The Amazing Leaf in the Cup: A Tale of Tea Retold in English and Chinese by Yiping Wei. However, I’ll summarize it “a man, named Ding Xian, has qualified for the imperial examinations. In his travels, he passes through Wuyi Mountain, where he meets a monk that helps him by giving him a drink that restores his energy. It is just hot water and leaves, but makes an impact on the […]

Friends, pets and understanding

Calvin and the Sugar Apples by Inês F. Oliveira

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Calvin and the Sugar Apples by Inês F. Oliveira and a few illustrations by Vanessa Balleza is a cute story about friendship and loss. There are a few illustrations that help highlight a few points of the story. The story is a hit or miss for most people (a few might be in between, like I was, but I don’t see a lot of middle ground). Our young heroine is a girl who might be on the autism scale, or is just a bit young/naïve […]



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