Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

The man, the woman and their influences on books

Outside In and Inside Out: A Story About Arnold Lobel by Emmy Kastner

Fanny's Big Idea: How Jewish Book Week Was Born by Richard Michelson and Alyssa Russell

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For the longest time, biographies were the only non-fiction reading I did. I would  explore that genre more as I got older, but I always hold a spot in my heart and read piles for biographies. And picture book biographies have become a staple to read. Two that grabbed my attention and made me need to talk about them were Outside In and Inside Out: A Story About Arnold Lobel by Emmy Kastner and Fanny’s Big Idea: How Jewish Book Week Was Born by Richard […]

Take a look it is in a book (and it’s fun too)

The Spell of a Story by Mariajo Ilustrajo

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I just counted and if my count is right, this is not only my oddball review of 884 (I like “boxed numbers” or ending in zero or five; or all three being the same….sometimes), but also my SEVENTEENTH Cannonball. (I think I might have reviewed a few books this year. What do you think?) But regardless if this is my 884th or 4th, this book is something special. Which is interesting as The Spell of a Story did not immediately grab me when I first saw/found it. […]

The stranger and the story

The Voice in the Hollow by Will Hillenbrand

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I saw a reader copy online called, The Voice in the Hollow. “Oh, isn’t that sweet.” I thought. “A little critter is going to hear the voice of the wind, nature, other animals, all the above as they go on a cold, winter walk” (or maybe no cold, but it did look blustery). And boy was I wrong. And right. It was sweet, just not that kind of sweet. Our young character, Hubert, (who I fell in love with because of the name) is a […]

I found my soulmate

A Very Cranky Book by Angela DiTerlizzi

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Usually I prefer books with a message. But sometimes you need a book that, well, is just for fun and a message is not needed. And that was A Very Cranky Book. Of course you could say that there is a message, about being a cranky person/book and dealing with friends like that, but overall, it is just a silly story by the wife and husband team of Angela DiTerlizzi and Tony Diterlizi. The cranky book is this story is, well, cranky.  They do not […]

My best friend is usually the one I’m currently reading

This Book Is My Best Friend by Robin Robinson

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When you have a best friend who gets you, you always want to be with them. But what happens if your best friend is also someone else’s? Well, that would be a slightly different story than This Book Is My Best Friend, but when two kids in a library find their best friend, a special book about robots and mice, they both want to take it out. But there are two of them, and only one book. As they try and convince the other why […]

Hop on the bus, Gus You don’t need to discuss much…just say your ABCs

The Library Bus by Bahram Rahman

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The Library Bus by Bahram Rahman will see a paperback edition in August of 2022. This story is about how some Afghan girls are able to achieve an education. Once a week, a young girl’s mother, in the dark of the morning, takes a special bus with no seats but a lot of books off to a village and the refugee camp. Pari’s (our young narrator) mother also teaches the children the English alphabet. We, and Pari, learn a little about why this is happening, […]



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