Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Emotional ride

Autopsy by Donte Collins

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#cbr11bingo #rainbowflag Autopsy is one of those poetry books that could be extremely controversial. Not only are the subject matters not easy to deal with (race, class, death, adoption, sexuality), these subjects are not easy to read. The other part of this is, if for some reason you are not 1000 percent “on board,” it could cause accusations of racism and bigotry. Therefore, this is not the first book to start with when you are starting out with a book of poetry. Therefore, this book […]

With great power comes great responsibility

Mia Mayhem Is a Superhero! by Kara West

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#cbr11bingo #Own Voices Even though (as an adult reading) I needed “more meat” to Mia Mayhem Is a Superhero! this introduction to the Mia Mayhem series is a good start to a new superhero series for ages 6 to 8 (first/second grade). My review is from a reader copy from December 2018: I would like to see the full artwork of Leeza Hernandez as the cover and few images included have a great start/is a great teaser to what is to come. You come to learn […]

Can You See Me America?

I Am Not Your Negro by James Baldwin

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I heard about the movie, but had no idea there was a companion book to it.   “In his final years, Baldwin had envisioned a book about his three assassinated friends, Medgar Evers, Malcolm X, and Martin Luther King. His deeply personal notes for the project have never been published before. Peck’s film uses them to jump through time, juxtaposing Baldwin’s private words with his public statements, in a blazing examination of the tragic history of race in America.” The writing, essays, the photos that […]

Life might not be basketball, but basketball can be Life

The Crossover by Kwame Alexander

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My goal this year was to read books I tend not to read. I was doing well but quickly fell back into my comfort zones. One being YA graphic novels. As far as I know, I have not read any Kwame Alexander novels. I might have read a short story or two, but that is it. Therefore, I have wanted to add him to my To Be Read List and figured a graphic novel was a good way. What it turned out to be was […]

Lupita Nyong’o shows you what it means to be beautiful

Sulwe by Lupita Nyong’o

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Lupita Nyong’o has created a picture book that deals with the issue of loving yourself. Growing up darker than her family, Nyong’o always wanted to change her looks; wanted to be lighter, like her own family and like her character, Sulwe. And while the two took different journeys, the ending is the same. They both came to love who they were: inside and out. This is done in a not overly preachy manner and the journey to being yourself could be anyone’s journey due to […]

The story of the Undefeated

The Undefeated by Kwame Alexander

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There is nothing exactly like the frustrations a reader/me experiences when they/me are/is trying to write the review of a book that is freaking (only I am not saying freaking) awesome and they/me cannot put that into words since the book says it best. The Undefeated by Kwame Alexander is a poetic look at the history of blacks in this country. Covering people from those we know such as Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., to people we might know like poet Phillis Wheatley and musicians […]



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