Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

“We must, we must, we must increase our bust!”

Are you there God? It's me Margaret. by Judy Blume

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With the new film adaptation out, I thought it would be fun to reread my childhood favorite Are you there God? It’s me Margaret by Judy Blume. I was wondering if it would still hold up. I have been disappointed in the past. I did not enjoy Little Women and O Pioneers! when I read them as an adult. Well, this time was different. I enjoyed this book as an adult reader. I am also looking forward to seeing the new film. Are you there […]

Some light can only be seen in the dark

Sulwe by Lupita Nyong'o and Vashti Harrison

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Sulwe is the colour of midnight. Her mama is the colour of dawn, her father the colour of dusk and her little sister is the colour of high noon. Sulwe has darker skin than anyone in her family and pretty much everyone at school. While her little sister is given positive nicknames like ‘ray’ and ‘sunshine’, Sulwe is called ‘darkie’ and ‘night’. This is obviously deeply hurtful to the little girl, who remains withdrawn and friendless. Sulwe tries a number of things to lighten her […]

Doing everything I can to complete my double Cannonball

King Baby by Kate Beaton

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See, some people might accuse me of desperation at this point, reviewing a 32-page children’s book I’ve read to my son more times than I can consciously count, considering he’s now nearly three, and my husband and I started reading it to him when he was only just a baby himself, long before he had any grasp of what the book was actually about or what the illustrations showed. Those people might not be entirely wrong. I have, however,  come to the conclusion that due […]

Crone power

Howl's Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones

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My first exposure to Howl’s Moving Castle was the Studio Ghibli film version., which I found utterly charming.  So when the Kindle Daily Deal dangled a bargain before me, I pounced, and am pleased to say that the book is similarly delightful. Howl’s Moving Castle takes place in an unspecified European landscape ruled by a fairytale logic, where Sophie Hatter, as the eldest of three daughters, is resigned to nothing interesting ever happening to her.  It’s always the youngest of three (or seven) that has […]

Considering Winnie the Pooh

Winnie-the-Pooh by A. A. Milne

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Bingo Review 23: Roaring 20s I didn’t feel like a lot of drama right now; calm reading is good right now for me. So what to do for this square? Like a lot of people, I suspect, I know who-what Winnie-the-Pooh is, but I can’t remember ever having read any of the original stories, the first volume of which came out in 1926. I feel like I must have, but upon picking up that first volume of stories, Winnie-the-Pooh, they weren’t too familiar seeming; unless […]

The Best Alphabet Book

P is For Pterodactyl by Raj Haldar & Chris Carpenter

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I don’t recall how I first heard of this book, but I bought it for myself just for kicks, and it’s a hoot. This is a children’s book, but only after your kids know the alphabet pretty well, or it will confuse them. The authors find words that don’t sound like they start with the letters they actually start with, like pterodactyl, knight, gnat, etc. There’s even a word that starts with a silent B, which I had no idea existed. It’s for bdellium (a […]



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