Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Pretty Poems from a Local Artist

Nature's Secrecy: Collected Poems by Amiyo Basu

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Several years ago I reviewed David Byrne’s How Music Works. One of the most interesting things in Byrne’s book is how differently we experience music today than we did prior to the phonograph. Until that time, music was localized and live by necessity. Every version of a song you heard was likely an interpretation, a cover; there was no “definitive” album version of a song. Additionally, musical styles were also more local because it wasn’t feasible to keep up with artists or a favorite genre outside […]

National Poetry Month- what doesn’t kill you still hurts

Our Lady of the Ruins by Traci Brimhall

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When it comes to reading poetry, I tend to stick with the classic epic poems like Beowulf and The Odyssey or more contemporary YA poetry-as-novel (The Poet X, Brown Girl Dreaming). I can’t remember a time outside of a classroom when I read a poetry collection. So for the CBR book exchange last December, one of my suggestions for whomever was buying for me was a book of poems, and Cannonballer Bonnie sent me this slim but stunning and provocative collection by contemporary award-winning poet […]

If I was a pen, this review would be my canvas

If I Was the Sunshine by Julie Foglilano

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If I Was the Sunshine is one of those books where there is nothing wrong with it, yet it is also a YMMV book. The text will be relatable on a personal level. You take away what you put into it. If you think it will be a lovely story like Guess How Much I Love You (a father/child relationship) it will be a lovely story about a parent/adult and child relationship). If you think it will be a sappy-pappy piece, then it will be […]

Flinging Stardust Everywhere

The Stuff of Stars by Marion Dane Baue

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The Stuff of Stars is what I would call “a real WOW!” book. Marion Dane Bauer has created text that is poetic and traditional text simultaneously. Along with the illustrations of Ekua Holmes, Bauer’s text is extremely strong. A read-aloud time will be most joyous as you will be able to “James Earl Jones” it (i.e.: just have a booming good time saying the words). While The Stuff of Stars is about a scientific theory, there is a hint of spiritually as well. Both story […]

Being the Man of the House

Keeping the Night Watch by Hope Anita Smith

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Looking at Keeping the Night Watch I figured it was going to be like Nikki Grimes or Nikki Giovanni. However, what it is like is a mix of both Grimes, Giovanni and Jason Reynolds, Jewell Parker Rhodes, Jacqueline Woods and what I think Kwame Alexander sounds like. I was unfamiliar with Hope Anita Smith before getting this gem in my shiny green package (see Go Sports Ball! review). However, unlike the others, this was not a new book but from 2008 (paper 2014). I am […]

Go Sports Ball!

Home Run, Touchdown, Basket, Goal!: Sports Poems for Little Athletes  by  Leo Landry

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I have done my auntly duty flattening my tail-feathers on benches and bleachers, gotten eye and neck strain from trying to see a 9-year-old out in right field, been rained on, sunburned and eaten alive by a mosquito or two watching nephews playing sports. And while I can tell the difference between a puck and the goalie (usually) and which football Americans vs. Europeans are talking about, I am not a sports person.  However, the other day, one of the publishes sent me a large, […]



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