Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

I wrote a long review about two books and it’s longer than the books probably…

Sun, Moon, and Star: A Folktale from Korea. by Nancy So Miller

Beatrix and Her Friends by Anne Lambelet

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Folktales have always been a go-to read for me. I enjoy learning about other cultures and seeing how they have been interpreted. Plus, I enjoy comparing them with other cultures’ stories. One true folktale (it even says so in the title) is  Sun, Moon, and Star: A Folktale from Korea. The other, while not a pure folktale, I consider her stories to be folktale adjacent. It is a biography of Beatrix Potter, aptly named, Beatrix and Friends. Nancy So Miller took an established story of […]

Do you let your children read Stephen King?

Hansel and Gretel by Stephen King and Maurice Sendak

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You might have heard that Stephen King took Maurice Sendak’s illustrations and sent them out into the world as a picture book called  Hansel and Gretel. Here is the story of how I finally read it:  One Saturday I needed a change of scenery and took a few hours to browse my local library. I sat at a table (in a too tall chair), read half of an adult graphic novel (while charging my phone, and after breaking a fingernail trying to get said book), […]

Just a piece of the puzzle

Issunboshi: A Graphic Novel by Ryan Long

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Picture it: Feudal Japan where creatures of myth and folklore are real. You can liken it to some Western stories (which came first? I do not know, but I assume the Asian ones) and the adventures our tiny hero has will meet the pages with clever text and images. This graphic novel, Issunboshi: A Graphic Novel by Ryan Long, unfolds in quick layers. There are a few surprises, but for the most part, you know where things are going. The idea of “you do not […]

The Myth, the Magic, The Woman

Medea by Blandine Le Callet

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In Medea by Blandine Le Callet, Nancy Peña (Illustrator), Montana Kane (Translator) the question you must first ask yourself is can you trust this narrator or not? Then, are you seeing the true story or not? Has she been villainized to take blame away from the real culprits? Or is she the monster history says? Those questions and more, will come alive in this adaptation of Medea’s story.  The afterwards show how the historical, myth and magic all came together, along with the creators adaptations, […]

Turkey trot

The Great Turkey Walk: A Graphic Novel Adaptation of the Classic Story of a Boy, His Dog and a Thousand Turkeys by Kathleen Karr and Michelle Bailat-Jones

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The Great Turkey Walk: A Graphic Novel Adaptation of the Classic Story of a Boy, His Dog and a Thousand Turkeys by Kathleen Karr, Léonie Bischoff (illustrator), and Michelle Bailat-Jones was not something I expected to like as much as I did. I assumed since the original book was around 25 years old that it would be dated. But either it was updated, or the common, familiar themes were done well enough to adapt to future readers. I do not believe I have  read the […]

And they all fall down.

The Fall of the House of Usher: A Graphic Novel by Edgar Allen Poe and Raul Garcia

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My 624 and a full 12 Cannonball review is actually one that is a bit lackluster. Now, I enjoy a good Edgar Allen Poe as much as the next English Major Casual Fan, but The Fall of the House of Usher: A Graphic Novel (adapted and illustrated by Raul Garcia) is not one of my favorites. However, as it is adapted into the graphic novel format, I felt it would be a better way to understand the story (The Lottery by Shirly Jackson has been […]



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