Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Careful what you wish for…

Wishes and Wellingtons by Julie Berry

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Middle grade books can be tricky, because they are intended for an audience who is older than standard elementary school fare, but not quite old enough to tackle the issues we see in young adult literature. I mention this, because I suspect Wishes and Wellingtons might have received a higher rating from me if I was in middle school. I should quickly add that this is a charming book, even if it felt a bit juvenile for me (and appropriately so). Maeve is an unconventional […]

A super fun YA love story.

Super Fake Love Song by David Yoon

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At the bookstore, I glanced at the inset of this novel and shrugged. Frankly in Love was great, but it felt like a fluke. Could David Yoon make another fake setup work? Yes, my friends. He totally did. Instead of a fake-dating scenario, we have a nerdy boy trying to impress a pretty girl by faking being in a metal band (like his older brother) and hiding his nerdy modeling habit and SFX video-making by dressing like a rockstar (again, like his brother). Of course, […]

Real urban cowboys

The Compton Cowboys by Walter Thompson-Hernandez

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I love Hidden Figures-style studies in cultures that are under-served, because they deserve more time and attention. I had first heard of the Compton Cowboys group early last year, and immediately went into record-scratch. Wait, what? An urban landscape like Compton has Black cowboys? I immediately desired the book and purchased it last summer. But I just got around to reading it now, because I’ve been hoarding books like no tomorrow. It’s more accurate to call this book an ethnography than a history, because it […]

Feminism is for everybody. Like, literally.

Hood Feminism by Mikki Kendall

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I’ve been trying to actively read more anti-racist resources and implement them in my life. I bought Hood Feminism late last summer but have had such a giant stack that I am only now getting to it. I am *so* glad I bought it, because I look forward to returning to it and recommending it to my own students. Mikki Kendall’s premise is that mainstream feminism is too white (it is) and focuses on “lean in issues” that really only protect the comforts of white […]

A queer YA space fiction that’s more about social media than space? Yes, please.

The Gravity of Us by Phil Stamper

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I’m a big consumer of young adult fiction, and when the opportunity arises to read a young adult novel, I take it. I find that my college students graft onto YA quicker than literary fiction (although dystopian literary fiction has been real popular), and so I read up in order to provide recommendations. Phil Stamper’s The Gravity of Us sounded somewhat interesting, so when I saw it on display at my local library, I checked it out immediately. Cal Lewis, Jr., is a budding social […]

Young adult multiverse romance

The Sun is Also a Star by Nicola Yoon

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It’s no secret that I like young adult fiction a LOT, although I don’t always like young adult romances. I hadn’t rushed out to read The Sun is Also a Star precisely because of the romance elements I usually avoid. And while there are plenty of improbabilities and near-misses that makes this book seem…impossible…I wasn’t mad at it. The novel focuses on Natasha, a Black Jamaican immigrant who is undocumented and about to be deported (thanks to the greatest day of her dad’s life) and […]



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