Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Of course, after building up this title, you will need to wait until April 2026 for reading

Unbreakable: A Japanese American Family in an American Incarceration Camp (A Picture Book) by Minoru Tonai, Jolene Gutiérrez, and Chris Sasaki

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When you read as many picture books as I do, once in a while one of two things (or both) can happen. The first is you think you’ve read it before (or at least a sample) or things start to feel similar due to similar subjects. A subject I am interested in are the Japanese-American internment camps from World War II.  This is partly because I have family who is Japanese-American and when I realized this could be them it made it personal (I know […]

Be Takei and you know, do stuff!

It Rhymes With Takei by George Takei, Harmony Becker, Steven Scott, and Justin Eisinger

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Cbr17bingo White  It Rhymes With Takei by George Takei, Harmony Becker, Steven Scott, and Justin Eisinger took me over a week to read. This is not because it was a bad graphic novel, but for three main reasons. First, it is actually on the longer side. Second, because it has heavy subjects it deals with. And finally, the pages can be a bit crowded, making images and text blur together and/or making it hard to follow at times, so I just took my time with […]

Her heart was American

Tokyo Rose - Zero Hour: A Japanese American Woman's Persecution and Ultimate Redemption After World War II by Andre R. Frattino

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The only reason that the graphic novel, Tokyo Rose – Zero Hour: A Japanese American Woman’s Persecution and Ultimate Redemption After World War II by Andre R. Frattino, is not a five rating is because of the illustrations. While it is understandable why they are in black and white, they were not my favorite things for multiple reasons. I know that illustrator Kate Kasenow did a lot of work on them. I appreciate the hard work, the time and even the final result to make […]

War and a family

Shell Song: Based on a True Family Story by Sharon Fujimoto-Johnson

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Shell Song: Based on a True Family Story by Sharon Fujimoto-Johnson and also illustrated by Fujimoto-Johnson is currently available, but I read via an online reader copy. The start of the story is set right before the bombing of Pearl Harbor. Afterwards, the narrator’s grandfather is sent to an internment camp with other men. In age appropriate language (at least five and up) the experiences of the grandfather and family back home unfold. As set in Hawaii, seashells will play a role in keeping the […]

The size of history

We Are American, Too by Kristen Mei Chase and Jieting Chen

The Memory Cake by Caroline L. Perry and Jen Bricking

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History is all around us. And history can be as large as World War II or as small as being the second person of your race being born in a town.  We Are American, Too tackles that second theme. Kristen Mei Chase and illustrator Jieting Chen follow a family on an important day of celebration. They are honoring their history, family, their people and even themselves. The originality of the book comes from how the story is told, instead of “just another immigrant story” which […]

The Food Cart, The Girl and the Community

Noodle & Bao by Shaina Lu

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The story of Noodle & Bao is obvious (the little guy taking on the big guy/the small town getting taken over by big money), but overall it is fun and fresh. There were a few bumps in the flow of things and the animals and human living side-by-side is odd (maybe it is because the people are that type of personalities?) but it keeps things light as we see gentrification at work. The use of details and colors are minimal but important. The extras at […]



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