Anne Lambelet – Cannonball Read 17

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

September 29, 2025 by BlackRaven Leave a Comment

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 […]

I was going to send all the spider pictures to my sister, but she’d unalive me….

The Spider Lady: Nan Songer and Her Arachnid World War II Army by Penny Parker Klostermann

January 28, 2025 by BlackRaven Leave a Comment

Disclaimer: Realistic spiders are drawn in the book The Spider Lady: Nan Songer and Her Arachnid World War II Army by Penny Parker Klostermann and Anne Lambelet. It is due early May 2025, and was read via an online reader copy. OMG! Now, if you do not like spiders, you probably should not read this book. However, I wish you would. Yes, there are spiders (a lot of spiders) but the art of Lambelet makes them so darn cute! I mean, I’d cuddle with them…. […]

Ducking ducks and Women in Pants!

Mr. McCloskey’s Marvelous Mallards: The Making of Make Way for Ducklings by Emma Bland Smith

Cloaked in Courage: Uncovering Deborah Sampson, Patriot Soldier by Beth Anderson

October 11, 2023 by BlackRaven Leave a Comment

This tale by Emma Bland Smith is the one that imagines how things went when Robert McCloskey decided to write Make Way For Ducklings. Their take is a bit poetic license I am sure, however Mr. McCloskey’s Marvelous Mallards: The Making of Make Way for Ducklings, is a fun way to see how one of his most famous works was made. From real ducklings to full grown ducks; from editors not willing to take the “okay” and from his own need to have things perfect, […]

Zirza on A Gothic Classic for a ReasonIt's one of those wish-you-could-read-it-again-for-the-first-time books. I loved it.
Emmalita on “It came to something when you found yourself hoping that the footsteps you heard were ghosts.”I loved the ending! I don’t think it’s been out long enough to talk about why though.
Dixie on Track Her Down by Melinda LeighI am just starting Track Her Down and I have read them all in order till now and thought I...
Roland of Gilead on How can you give us the gift of a crazy character named Rando Thoughtful and then just as suddenly take that gift away? We need to talk, Uncle Stevie.I came across this randomly years after it was written because I was searching "Random Thoughtful. But I have the...
Emmalita on “Only you, Em, would refer to heartbreak as a distraction. I think I would have a more sympathetic response if I asked to marry a bookcase.”Oh my goodness, Gallifrey was beautiful. I’m sure her mittens were gloriously murdery.

Help Our Mission