Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

A girl and her island

Yukie’s Island: My Family’s World War II Story. by Yukie Kimura, Kodo Kimura

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Yukie is a young girl who lives on an island with her parents and siblings. She plays and explores with her brother, helps their father keep the lighthouse going, and is excited when they leave the island for school, even on the day she lost her lunch overboard and the fish had a feast because of it. She is a typical young girl, except this is not a story of just any girl, or any island, but one of a young Japanese girl during World […]

Probably My Least Favorite Book of the Year

Three Tigers, One Mountain by Michael Booth

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CBR15Bingo: Guide (purports to be a guide to the relationship between China, Japan, and South Korea, and how to fix it) This is a DNF for me but I did read most of it out loud to my mom in a rage, so I feel qualified to write a review. I hated this book and think it’s completely biased and under-researched, and the fact that he is selling this book as a qualified insider type look into the relationship between these three countries is borderline […]

Flowing friendship

The Musician (Lofty Mountains and Flowing Water) by Xuefeng Liu

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The Musician (Lofty Mountains and Flowing Water) by Xuefeng Liu, Gunter Grossholz (Illustrator) and Yuxi Wan (Illustrator) had a so-so story to it. It was a nice journey and an interesting folktale, myth or legend (depending on how you define those genres, and how you look at the story itself). However, it was the illustrations that grabbed me. That makes this book really more of a 4 than 5 for me, but the potential for other people and the fact it is, while familiar, it […]

Grandma and Felix

Words Between Us by Angela Pham Krans

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When I first saw Words Between Us as an online reader copy and noticed the cover, it made me assume that this was going to be a grandparent/grandchild story and one where their language difficulties would cause problems. However, I was mostly right. This was a grandmother and grandson story, but they are able to speak to each other (both speak Vietnamese). They have a tight and special bond as time goes by and the two of them learn about each other. However, the grandmother […]

A boy and his bird

Kozo the Sparrow by Allen Say

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Kozo the Sparrow by Allen Say is what you expect from a Say picture book. Due in mid-October 2023 I read via an online reader copy. The story is about his childhood, there are the children of post-war, and there his classical upbringing with the more modern touches of the time. There is nothing new, but as always, Say does not disappoint. The story of nursing a young bird to health, the responsibility and the fondness he has for this bird is wonderfully presented. You […]

Check out that strong Queen

The Discovery of Chess: The Asian Hall of Fame by Phil Amara and Oliver Chin

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I might be physically reaching an age where people start to feel very old; where they have hit a milestone in their life where society says you are not really nifty but your age rhymes. But mentally I am five to 10-years-old depending on the day. And when I was asked by a fellow Cannonballer if I was interested in reviewing a reader copy that was offered to us, I said yes. I was very excited. And the second time this happened (yes, this honor […]



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