Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Feelings Wo-o-o feelings

Max and the Purple Worry by Kitty Black

Sometimes When I'm Jealous by Deborah Serani

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Emotions are an interesting thing. And recently I read two picture books that dealt with them in different, but equally well presented ways. Both books are available, but I read them via an online reader’s copy. “Is that a seven or a chicken?” Worry asks in Max and the Purple Worry. Well if Max does math the way I do? It is a chicken. And like Max, I worried about my math work, too. The numbers (or me) didn’t run away, but I wanted to. […]

Free Spirit Publishing has some neat books

Thank You, Night by Dan McCauley

Thank You, Rain by Dan McCauley

B Is for Belonging by Shannon Anderson

Hello, Beech Tree! by Rasha Hamid

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A while back I saw two online reader copies that had intriguing covers (or thumbnails of the cover as it was only a small image). I liked them, but figured I knew what they were about by judging the cover. Thank You, Night and Thank You, Rain looked like they would be nice father and child stories. One set at night and one set in/around a rainy day. And I was not wrong. (Yes, I read them eventually.) They had more to them than those […]

I regret nothing with the first book!

Farty Pants: A Stinky Book of Monsters by Eric Geron

Huck and Loona by Emily Kilgore

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Books should be fun, but they can also be educational. Of course, if they are both you have the best of all worlds and memorable stories.  Farty Pants: A Stinky Book of Monsters by the team of Eric Geron and Dean Gray (illustrations) who are a gas (I mean to read with, not you know are gassy…then again…)  It is currently available but I read via an online reader copy. Thankfully we haven’t gotten to “smell-o-book” yet, though there were sound buttons (that I was […]

Ghostly friendship

The Ghost of Blanes Museum by Lau Moraiti

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The Ghost of Blanes Museum by Lau Moraiti (both text and illustrations) is due late May/early June 2024. I had a “do I/don’t I read it” relationship with this book.  I was not sure I really wanted to read it, but the cover kept pulling me in. I finally had one too many cosmic hints that said, “Read it already!” And I finally read it via an online reader copy. In the end I am not sure why I waited so long! Yet, I think […]

Once upon a time there were two emails

The Magic Box: A Book of Opposites by Charles Ghigna

What Love Looks Like by Laura Obuobi

Danté Plays His Blues by Allen R. Wells

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Once upon a time there were two emails in my work email that said, “Please give our books a chance!” So I did. And out of the almost 10 titles I read via online reader copies, I found three I enjoyed and wanted to review.  The Magic Box: A Book of Opposites by Charles Ghigna and illustrated by Jacqueline East had potential. However, due to the minimal text, it missed the OMG BBE (Best Book Ever) mark by a smidgen. There were not as many […]

I’m so excited and I…. gotta sit down and read books

Loveykins by Quentin Blake

Pavlo Get the Grumps by Natalia Shaloshvili

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CBR16SweetBooks #Exciting To get me excited over a book there has to be something about it that just grabs me. And of course, that does not mean it works out in the end but some times it does. The covers of these two picture books fit that bill of they “grabbed me” and got me excited. The first is about a bird that is from its cover, a crossed-eyed, awkward looking chap (think Quentin Blake illustrations as it is by Blake). And the second is about a cat that just […]



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