Concepts – Page 14 – Cannonball Read 17

A new alphabet

Letters to Live By: An Alphabet Book with Intention by Lisa Frenkel Riddiough

March 11, 2022 by BlackRaven Leave a Comment

I was not sure how Letters to Live By: An Alphabet Book with Intention would present itself. What is an “intention” alphabet book? It seemed a little old fashioned. Maybe it would more spiritual? Maybe it would a bit more conservative? It was not conservative, but it was with a classic tone and some “old fashioned” but needed ideas. What Lisa Frenkel Riddiough did was take the alphabet and paired same lettered words to teach such concepts as generosity, excellence, joy, and compassion. I was […]

A book about nothing

Zero Zebras: A Counting Book about What’s Not There by Bruce Goldstone

February 21, 2022 by BlackRaven Leave a Comment

The concept of Zero Zebras: A Counting Book about What’s Not There at first was off putting and I expected something to happen that eventually, never did. Bruce Goldstone starts with the usual counting format. Therefore, the idea of 5 foxes or 10 tigers is not new, and even zero zebras is not a new concept. However, one most likely will assumes that by the end you will have a menagerie of animals and then the narrator will say, oh one zebra or 100 zebras […]

Two books two reviews

Lewis Trondheim’s The Fly by Lewis Trondheim

Chick and Brain: Egg or Eyeball? by Cece Bell

August 25, 2021 by BlackRaven Leave a Comment

What do you do when you want to write a review of four books, and are not sure you can make that 250 minimum as total they might have 250 words between them? (I’m estimating as one is a silent comic.) You review two at a time! And I will start with The Fly and Chick and Brain. The first is probably my favorite, though I was/am not “jumping up and down” over it. It is a black and white, what was called a “silent […]

One squirrel is a little nuts

The Leaf Thief by Alice Hemming

August 18, 2021 by BlackRaven Leave a Comment

I have a love-hate relationship with squirrels: as I love to hate them and hate to love them. But no matter how much I say I do not like squirrels, I like squirrels. I even like Squirrel in The Leaf Thief by Alice Hemming. Even though Squirrel is a nut or two short of some logic now and again. Squirrel loves counting leaves on his tree. The red ones, gold ones, orange ones, and the yellow ones. But when he realizes that one is missing, […]

I wrote this a few hours before I heard of the current events

V Is for Voting by Kate Farrrell

January 7, 2021 by BlackRaven Leave a Comment

NOTE: I wrote the below review before I heard about the riots. I want to present this review as it was before I had my feelings of the recent events. Before I knew that my cousin’s son was working (though in Virginia) someplace near Washington DC. Before I knew my cousin was hearing gunshots and racial slurs outside her apartment. Before she started playing phone tag to make sure her friends were safe. Before I became sick to my stomach at the horrors we keep […]

I know it is 298 days until Halloween but this is a year-round Treat!

The Ghosts Went Floating by Kim Norman

January 6, 2021 by BlackRaven Leave a Comment

I am going to say it. I am not ashamed. I almost peed myself laughing at The Ghosts Went Floating. I thought my coworkers would come into the office and think that I had officially finally lost it for good this time. But I did not care! I would just have told them that Kim Norman is a genius! Norman took “The Ants go Marching” song and gave it the most awesome of awesome twists: put that tune to a Halloween theme. I have seen […]

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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