Chris Raschka – Cannonball Read 17

Seeing through touch, taste, smell, and sound

I Hear the Snow, I Smell the Sea by Janice Milusich and Chris Raschka

June 13, 2025 by BlackRaven Leave a Comment

I Hear the Snow, I Smell the Sea is a lovely, poetic text and soft classical story that also has several modern takes. Author Janice Milusich’s text and Chris Raschka styled illustrations make up this familiar season’s story (we have a child who follows the seasons in the usual ways by talking about the sun, how things feel, colors and more) but this time there is a wonderful twist of having a visually impaired narrator. This narrator must experience these things differently, therefore seems to […]

Sing those Yellow Dog Blues

Yellow Dog Blues by Alice Faye Duncan

July 1, 2022 by BlackRaven Leave a Comment

You just have to read this book to understand what is going on in this book. I can summarize that it is about a young boy looking for his dog and all the crazy, wonderful things that happen along the way. This is a “boogie-woogie” journey (according to the publisher description). Alice Faye Duncan and Chris Raschka made Yellow Dog Blues just plan a pleasant book, funny, and terribly charming. The publisher description also has this: With swinging free verse and stunning hand-stitched art, Yellow […]

The ups and downs of routine changes

August 24, 2018 by BlackRaven Leave a Comment

The team of Audrey Vernick, Liz Garton Scanlon and Chris Raschka probably had a substitute teacher or two during their school days. However, I wonder if they were as unsure of them as the narrator is of their substitute teacher in Dear Substitute. Finding out that their teacher is out unexpectantly (why did Mrs. Giordano not warn them?) all sorts of feelings pop up for one student. After all, Miss Pelly changes their routines, cannot pronounce some of the student’s names, she reads new books […]

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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