Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

The Big Cheese is a Big Wheel

The Big Cheese by Jory John

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There is a new Jory John and Pete Oswald book coming out in early November 2023. And it is a big deal. In fact, you could say it is a big wheel called The Big Cheese. Starting back in 2017 withThe Bad Seed, the themes of the Food Group books are lessons for everyone about personalities, emotions, social themes, and more. When we meet Cheese they are a big deal. They tell us they started life normal enough, but had big plans. And they achieved them. And […]

What’s that sound?

Tapping Feet by Moira Rose Donohue

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I really enjoy my job as a staff member of an independent bookstore. You never know what you will find on the shelves (for sale and reader copies, where I found an ARC, Juba! by Walter Dean Myers, that had introduced me to a few names shown here). Or in the emails we receive saying, “Hey we have these reader copies and if you’re interested email me and I’ll send you something.” In early August I had asked for a finished copy of Tapping Feet […]

Check out that strong Queen

The Discovery of Chess: The Asian Hall of Fame by Phil Amara and Oliver Chin

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I might be physically reaching an age where people start to feel very old; where they have hit a milestone in their life where society says you are not really nifty but your age rhymes. But mentally I am five to 10-years-old depending on the day. And when I was asked by a fellow Cannonballer if I was interested in reviewing a reader copy that was offered to us, I said yes. I was very excited. And the second time this happened (yes, this honor […]

It’s too early to write a clever title but honestly you should have your kids read this

Travis Daventhorpe for the Win! Volume One by Wes Molebash

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In the idea of the Judd Winick’s Hilo adventures, but with a bit more “weight”, yet equally funny, magical and scientific, we have Travis Daventhorpe for the Win! Volume One. Good for ages 8 to 11/young12, this book has all the fun of robots, dinosaurs, friends, bullies, wizards and dodgeball! (Okay, dodgeball might not be fun, but the scientific experiments Travis does are.) Travis is new to middle school. He has little to no social skills, but he can build sentient robots that can do […]

She showed her knees and swam away a winner

Annette Feels Free: The True Story of Annette Kellerman, World-Class Swimmer, Fashion Pioneer, and Real-Life Mermaid by Katie Mazeika

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When looking through the old online reader copy links I found some surprises but others, like Annette Feels Free: The True Story of Annette Kellerman, World-Class Swimmer, Fashion Pioneer, and Real-Life Mermaid was only a small surprise as I like biographies of unknown (or at least mostly unknown) people. And Kellerman is a fairly unknown name today. But that was not the case when she was a swimmer. Taking Australia by storm, a young teen took to swimming like fish takes to swimming. It did […]

Americana Sports

Loose Balls: The Short, Wild Life of the American Basketball Association by Terry Pluto

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Read as part of CBR15Bingo: North America. The story of the American Basketball Association takes place exclusively in the United States and the organization has the word “American” in it. The other day, I was at a basketball team store when I saw a New York Nets hat for sale. I’ve tried really hard not to purchase clothes and hats these days but I just couldn’t help myself. It was beautiful, with the old school Nets logo. It represented everything good about the old American […]



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