children’s fiction – Page 3 – Cannonball Read 17

She’s different. She’s the great exception

Mary Poppins by P. L. Travers

October 21, 2019 by Leedock Leave a Comment

CBR11 Bingo: Birthday! (P.L. Travers born August 9th, 1899) (BINGO! Cannonballer Says square to Summer Read square/Far and Away square to Birthday square) The film version of Mary Poppins has been a favorite of mine since childhood. Even though I was a voracious reader as a kid, I never got around to reading the book. Several years ago, I watched “Saving Mr. Banks,” the mostly fictionalized account of the struggle of Walt Disney to persuade P. L. Travers to allow him to make the film version of her book. While I’m certain that the artistic […]

“Give her hell from us, Peeves.” (This review is the reason I’m four months behind.)

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (Harry Potter, #5) by J.K. Rowling

September 10, 2019 by narfna Leave a Comment

This was the most I have ever liked this book. (And that’s saying something, because I remember losing my mind over it when it was first published.) I’m kicking myself for not writing up some notes after I finished because it’s been since May that I finished this, and I’ve lost most of that newly gleaned insight. Maybe going through these quotes will help bring some of it back. Also, just know going in, I do not hold with any nonsense about blaming Harry for […]

A strong finish to this series about magical oppression.

Ptolemy's Gate (The Bartimaeus Trilogy, #3) by Jonathan Stroud

January 22, 2019 by narfna Leave a Comment

Worth slogging through book two just to get to this one. (And I’m still not convinced my reaction to that book wasn’t just me trying to read it at the wrong time.) This is the third and final book in the original Bartimaeus Trilogy (he wrote a prequel in 2010 but I think I’m going to pass on that one). It takes place three years after the events of The Golem’s Eye. Nathaniel/John Mandrake is high up in government now, in charge of what is […]

“A soft heart only makes it easier for a knife to slip in.”

The Dreadful Tale of Prosper Redding by Alexandra Bracken

January 19, 2019 by cosbrarian Leave a Comment

Prosper Redding is of the Massacusetts Reddings: a very rich, very privileged family whose lineage goes back to the pilgrims. Prosper is a bit of a black sheep, caring mostly about art and his twin sister Prue. His grandmother, a severe matriarchal type, seems to particularly despise him, probably because he doesn’t do much to contribute to the Redding Name. Even he couldn’t guess how much he was despised, though — until the day of a local fair, when he is dragged down to the family […]

“We do not know what things look like. We know what things are like. It must be a very limiting thing, this seeing.”

February 21, 2018 by narfna Leave a Comment

I still love this. The last time I read A Wrinkle in Time was ten years ago. I hadn’t read the book in years before that, and barely remembered it, except for a few images that had burned into my subconscious (the man with the red eyes, for example; the Murry’s vegetable garden and their laboratory; Charles Wallace; and I remembered that I thought it was terrifying). It’s basically impossible for me to read or review it now without my childhood impressions coloring it. Because […]

This book seriously messed with me as a kid.

December 28, 2017 by narfna Leave a Comment

I have misremembered or forgotten entire books and plotlines from this series, something which I’ve discovered over and over again in this re-read of mine. But I did not forget this book. This book I remembered very clearly. It made a HUGE impression on me as a kid. This is the one where Cassie quits the Animorphs because she’s finding herself willing to do more and more horrible things in the name of defeating the Yeerks, and she doesn’t want to become that person. She […]

Zirza on A Gothic Classic for a ReasonIt's one of those wish-you-could-read-it-again-for-the-first-time books. I loved it.
Emmalita on “It came to something when you found yourself hoping that the footsteps you heard were ghosts.”I loved the ending! I don’t think it’s been out long enough to talk about why though.
Dixie on Track Her Down by Melinda LeighI am just starting Track Her Down and I have read them all in order till now and thought I...
Roland of Gilead on How can you give us the gift of a crazy character named Rando Thoughtful and then just as suddenly take that gift away? We need to talk, Uncle Stevie.I came across this randomly years after it was written because I was searching "Random Thoughtful. But I have the...
Emmalita on “Only you, Em, would refer to heartbreak as a distraction. I think I would have a more sympathetic response if I asked to marry a bookcase.”Oh my goodness, Gallifrey was beautiful. I’m sure her mittens were gloriously murdery.

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