Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Adult literacy

My Kentucky Moonlight School by Kim Michele Richardson

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My Kentucky Moonlight School is another book (read via an online reader) due in August 2026 but is a must to talk about now. Kim Michele Richardson’s story is about a family, their community and how they learn to read during “Moonlight sessions” of schooling. It is sweet, educational and even a little humorous at times.  This is enhanced by Chloe M. Giroux who illustrates the adventures of this family with earthy tones, bright shading and light use, and just the right amount of details. […]

What stars are made of

The Curious Life of Cecilia Payne: Discovering the Stuff of Stars by Laura Alary

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TITLE: The Curious Life of Cecilia Payne: Discovering the Stuff of Stars AUTHOR:  Laura Alary ILLUSTRATOR:  Yas Imamura  PUB DATE: Late January 2026 READ AS: Online reader copy RESULT:  Dang this is good! NEED MORE?: YES OKAY MORE: This is a picture book about Cecila Payne, who was a young girl who did not fit in. She stood out in many ways not just because she was taller than other girls/women, not just because she was a female, but because she really loved nature and […]

Skirts Just Look So Good on Us!

Skirts: Fashioning Modern Femininity in the Twentieth Century by Kimberly Chrisman-Campbell

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Fashion can say a lot about the people that wear it and the places they occupy in time and space. As such, women starting to wear pants is a shorthand for progress in feminism – but, Kimberly Chrisman-Campbell argues, the evolution of skirts over the twentieth century too has plenty to say. Like the author, I wear a lot of dresses and skirts, mostly because they are an easy way to look like you’ve made an effort, and also let you slouch and lounge around […]

A piece of the story

Song of a Blackbird by Maria van Lieshout

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To be honest, I have a lot of books that get misplaced. I put them in safe places and well, they are so safe even I can’t find them. But there is always a way to find them. And with Song of a Blackbird by Maria van Lieshout that way was the library and interlibrary loan.  A powerful and beautifully done story of family and the horrors of war unfolds across the pages. As it is told via a blackbird, things at times become almost […]

What have we learned in the past 80 years? (from publisher description)

Barbed Wire Between Us by Mia Wenjen

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Barbed Wire Between Us by Mia Wenjen and illustrated by Violeta Encarnación was a WOW book. It was not necessarily the story itself (though that is pretty wild) it was the way it was formatted that really made it work for me. It is a fantastic circular story that shows how history can repeat. But not only that, the text is repeated. We start with a young girl who is behind a fence in the 1940s. How she gets there, the thoughts and feelings she […]

Davis lecturing and marching.

Be the Light: How She Became Angela Davis by Daria Peoples

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Do you know who Angela Davis is? If you do, you are one up on me. I had never heard of them, or if I had it was just a footnote in history. And to be honest, Davis deserves to be more than a footnote. She needs her own thousand paged book. Instead I must settle for the clever picture book (currently available but read on line) Be the Light: How She Became Angela Davis written and illustrated by Daria Peoples. Davis was born in […]



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