Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Kids can be very scary

We Hear Voices by Evie Green

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This book scared the crap out of me. It has the combined terrifying issues of children, murder, mysterious institutions, and other creepy shit. This horror story follows a boy named Billy who has an imaginary friend named Delfy. At first, Delfy seems like a harmless, developmentally approrpriate figment of a young boy’s imagination; but Delfy soon evolves into something malevolent. Something uncany about this book is that it takes place in the future, in a world where a pandemic has swept through the population. Meanwhile, […]

Liz Climo is the cartoonist the world needs!

Please Don't Eat Me by Liz Climo

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CBR12 BINGO: Friendship Liz Climo is probably my favorite working cartoonist. Her drawings of “odd couple” animals and their relationships are unmitigated joy, what my 29-year-old niece describes as “wholesome” (followed by the sobbing eyes emoji, reserved for things so pure she just can’t stand it). If you’re not familiar with Climo’s artwork, then congratulations, you lucky duck, because you are about to experience happiness like you haven’t felt in months! Her characters are usually critters that you might not typically think of as “going together,” like […]

It’s the Chronic (WHAT) cles of Narnia

The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis

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Can anyone in their 30s talk about The Chronicles of Narnia without now recalling the SNL Digital Short Lazy Sunday starring Andy Samberg and Chris Parnell? Because the minute I say the name of the series, that’s all I hear, them yelling about going to watch the movie version of the first book. As I started to write this review, I went and looked up the video and it still got a giggle, so well done to the future Mr. Jake Peralta. Buuuut anyhoo. Why […]

Unaccompanied Minors, side of Nazis

The Adventurous Four by Enid Blyton

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Set in an unnamed fishing village off the north east coast of Scotland, Blyton’s book follows three siblings, Tom and his younger twin sisters Jill and Mary, who are on late summer holidays with their parents.  Their older friend, Andy, is the son of a local fisherman, and the four of them are planning a day trip with Andy’s father’s boat, lent with permission.  On their day outing, a storm sweeps the boat off course, and the four children are shipwrecked on a small island […]

Annie with Blonde Curls

Before We Were Yours by Lisa Wingate

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This is the second time I’ve read a book this year and not known until the end that it was based on a true story. Just like my experience with Grace is Gone, I got to the end of Before We Were Yours to find A Note From the Author about the real life story of Georgia Tann. Tann is considered the “Mother of Modern Adoption,” which sounds like a really beautiful moniker, and in many ways, her work benefited children throughout the world. However, the dark […]

“A sound can move anything if it’s strong enough.”

Song For a Whale by Lynne Kelly

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Iris has always had a slight connection to whales, because she was named in honor of one. The day she was born, a whale beached itself in their hometown, and her family named her the same name scientists gave the whale, as its life left the world when hers began. But Iris’s connection to these creatures truly clicks when her teacher shares a video about a very unique whale, called Blue-55 by scientists, sometimes called the loneliest whale. Blue-55 is a hybrid breed, and sings […]



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