Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Languages for the power

My Mother's Tongues: A Weaving of Languages by Uma Menon

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My Mother’s Tongues: A Weaving of Languages is a clever story of a young girl and her family’s talents with languages. Well, her mother can speak two different languages. She has one for her mother and daughter, and another for the cashier. However, sometimes the two are mixed. And the young girl explores her family and how they learned to speak several languages, and what that means. The connection between the generations is sweet and the cultural connections are delightful to learn. Uma Menon introduces […]

The world in your hands

A Garden in My Hands by Meera Siram

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I have found several picture books of late. One of them, A Garden in My Hands is a sweet, contemporary book that explores the Indian culture of one child’s family. While the mother of the story shares her own stories about the family, their culture, and more, the little girl watches them come alive as her mother applies to her hands some henna. There is a little humor and a lot of love. Meera Siram has tapped into a special world to share with those […]

When the spirits ask for help

Guardian of Fukushima (Junior Library Guild) by Fabien Grolleau

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cbr15bingo Asia/Oceania  set in Japan While I am giving Guardian of Fukushima (Junior Library Guild) a five, there are a few bumps that make this graphic novel 4.5 to a 4.7.  However, while this is not a perfect story, it is wonderfully done and is the story that was needed. The emotional and human aspects of the earthquake, the tsunami and nuclear devastation of March 2011 is explored in ways we do not usually see. Which tends to be, when a disaster happens, we usually find the […]

Be the grandfather

My Grandfather's Song by Phùng Nguyên Quang,

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cbr15bingo Guide: We must be the guides for the next generations to keep the conservation of our world happening. My Grandfather’s Song at first seemed like it was going in one direction, but it does a slight turn. The beginning seems more of how nature is wild and therefore for us to learn from, but the turn comes when the narrator shows us how everything is connected and respect is given to the wild. We see all this with how the narrator grows. You will […]

And she lived stinky ever after

Ra Pu Zel and the Stinky Tofu by Yin Chang Compestine

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I enjoy a good folk tale, and non-western ones can be a favorite. However, when it is a retelling of a western one just to be politically correct, then I can be 50-50 with it. Now if it is based in the culture (such as there are Cinderella stories from around the world, not just redoing the western version), then that I usually will enjoy. But if it is done just to have diverse characters and/or setting, but everything else is the same, those are […]



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