Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Maybe if they taught the epic poem this way, we’d get it!

Bea Wolf   by Zach Weinersmith

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The graphic novel Bea Wolf  was both a book I loved and was thinking after only a few pages, “Just what exactly am I reading?” There are layers upon layers upon layers to the story arcs, and yet this is a simple story. If I have to say the first work that comes to mind when describing it, I would say Artistic. The second, Confusing. The third, Simple-Beauty (okay I know that’s technically two, but that’s what fits!). Zach Weinersmith  was influenced by the story of Beowulf, and therefore […]

Real Fictional Comic about a Comic Artist (in middle school)

New Kid by Jerry Craft

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Bingo 8: Picture This Since the book club book I’m thinking I want to start with is part 2 of a series, I figured I’d get a hold of book one first. Somehow, I’d forgotten that New Kid was a graphic novel, so it fits in just fine for Bingo. Turns out the main character want to be a drawer of pictures, so it double works. I was a little unsure about this one before starting it because it was more of a middle grade […]

What if Carrie had supportive friends and family?

Hexed (2021) by Julia Tuffs

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Bingo square ‘Bodies, Bodies’: The main character has to deal with the uncontrollable nature of her own body and its possibly controllable impulses, and there’s also discussion of how men feel entitled to women’s bodies and reducing women to bodies. Hexed (2021) is a witchy YA book and a fun short-ish read. After being forced to move around a lot by her slightly flaky mother, Jessie Jones has just started at a new high school near her family’s roots on the Isle of Wight (a […]

“An hour, once it lodges in the queer element of the human spirit, may be stretched”

The Miseducation of Cameron Post (2012) by emily m. danforth

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CBR Bingo square “Queer Lives”: The Miseducation of Cameron Post is a queer YA novel, and was banned in a middle school in 2015 in Delaware for “inappropriate language.” I mean, fuck that. The novel was also criticised by the School Library Journal for its length and pacing, and my inclination is also to say fuck that, but I do understand that this is the kind of thing where YMMV. It did take a while to get into, but I was fully immersed when I did. […]

CBR15 Bingo: Picture This

Gender Queer: A Memoir by Maia Kokabe

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CBR15 Bingo: Picture This (can also be used for Queer Lives) Official book description: In 2014, Maia Kobabe, who uses e/em/eir pronouns, thought that a comic of reading statistics would be the last autobiographical comic e would ever write. At the time, it was the only thing e felt comfortable with strangers knowing about em. Now, Gender Queer is here. Maia’s intensely cathartic autobiography charts eir journey of self-identity, which includes the mortification and confusion of adolescent crushes, grappling with how to come out to […]

I am The Best! At what, not sure yet…..

Getting Dizzy by Shea Fontana

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I was surprised at the graphic novel, Getting Dizzy. I expected it to be “whiny” and young. However, while it deals with teen angst and the “good enough/not good enough” trope, the not-so-super-superhero story was  not overly cliché. The ending was a tad rushed, the mother a bit too forgiving, but overall it was a pleasant read. The aged 10 to 13-young 14 will enjoy it.  Shea Fontana has a diverse cast, and while there is a “love interest” he, or that potential storyline, is […]



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