Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

A long review with a lot of thoughts

Transitions: A Mother's Journey by Elodie Durand

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I used to book mentor a kid that came to my store. He was smart, but mentally and physically young. One day I learned he wanted to go by “James” not “Jamie” anymore. Why? You see, his neighbor “Bob” left one day and when he came back, she was “Jamie” and (hopefully) she was happy. Now, since “James” was a kid, it is expected that he wouldn’t understand this. After all, transgendered people were not in the mainstream as they would be even a few […]

Nostalgia

Amla Mater by Devi Menon

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Even though I have trouble reading online, I am finding even my longer reads there. Such as Amla Mater by Devi Menon. It is less than 200 pages, and therefore more of a novella graphic novel, but what I mean by longer is not a picture book. Actually picture books can be relatively easy to read online (unless they have a smaller print, a lot of print or illustrations that need the book to be turned to read), but when I do my young adult […]

Powerful story of climate change

Dust by Alison Stine

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There was so much of this I loved, but also this was a book that felt really slow through most of the middle. Thea is partially deaf and after her family’s home in Ohio flooded, her dad brought them to Bloodless Valley in Colorado in order to live a simple life and return to basic farming lifestyle. But there is nothing simple about living in the Valley. There’s been a drought for a long time and corporate farms keep buying the water, making it harder […]

Freshman Blues

How It All Ends by Emma Hunsinger

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How It All Ends by Emma Hunsinger is a coming of age story that we know: Girl has trouble fitting in during high school. She is not ready for the trials of being a teen. But, the thing is, she isn’t really a teen. She should be an 8th grader. She should be having homeroom, going to Six Flags, starting a first crush; not having to deal with boys who think interrupting their English teacher is funny. Doing group projects with a boy (thankfully she […]

Where this series shines, and where it falls apart

Lost in the Moment and Found by Seanan McGuire

Mislaid in Parts Half-Known by Seanan McGuire

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After going back and rereading my favorite Wayward Children book (In an Absent Dream), I decided to pick up the last two that I hadn’t read yet. I loved one, didn’t care for the other, and I think I pinpointed what works for me with these books and what doesn’t. Lost in the Moment and Found is the story of Antsy (Antoinette), whose father has died and mother has remarried. Her mother’s new husband is Bad News, and Antsy runs away from home to escape him. She […]

Love, Kindness, Danger

The Girl Who Sang: A Holocaust Memoir of Hope and Survival by Estelle Nadel, Bethany Strout and Sammy Savos

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“There are very few survivors left, and I want the world to know that there was a Holocaust” The Girl Who Sang: A Holocaust Memoir of Hope and Survival is a short graphic novel, but has a lot packed in. Estelle Nadel, Bethany Strout and Sammy Savos created an informative, quick story about how one girl survived during wartime, a girl who was lost and how she found her voice when all seemed to be the end of the world.  There are uncomplicated illustrations supporting […]



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