Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

My review became longer than the books combined!

Baby Play (Bilingual Portuguese & English) (Barefoot Bilinguals) by Skye Silver

Our World: England by Sumana Seeboruth

Barefoot Baby-Proof: Baby's First Words by Christiane Engel

Feelings & Firsts: Won’t Go! by Sumana Seeboruth

Feelings & Firsts: Not Tired! by Sumana Seeboruth

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Recently I received an envelope from Barefoot Press. (I might have cackled, “MINE! MINE! ALL MINE!” I get emotional when my book dealer comes through for me with a fix. And what a fix it was.) There were hardcovers, board books, paperbacks and one of which is an “indestructible paper not board-board books.” I wanted to read then, but decided working probably was more important. I went home, curled up on the couch and started with the board books. The first was Baby Play (Bilingual […]

12 months of the year in English, French, Spanish and German

One Year: Une Année  Un Año  Ein Jahr by Ioana Stoain

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There is a lot to love about the book One Year: Une Année  Un Año  Ein Jahr. There are adorable illustrations by Julia Leister that give things a bright, fun, and whimsical look. As the publisher’s description says, these  “retro-style illustrations” make things cozy and happy. The images tell you the month with the people’s clothing and actions, plus the weather is a great clue. I really enjoyed all of this until the whole point of the book. The four different languages. Ioana Stoain puts […]

Languages for the power

My Mother's Tongues: A Weaving of Languages by Uma Menon

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My Mother’s Tongues: A Weaving of Languages is a clever story of a young girl and her family’s talents with languages. Well, her mother can speak two different languages. She has one for her mother and daughter, and another for the cashier. However, sometimes the two are mixed. And the young girl explores her family and how they learned to speak several languages, and what that means. The connection between the generations is sweet and the cultural connections are delightful to learn. Uma Menon introduces […]

It’s not nice to spy on people hiding in the woods

What We Saw: A Thriller by Mary Downing Hahn

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cbr15bingo: Nostalgia: For the days when I first read this author, a young kid with no adult problems! When I was asked who my favorite author was as a kid, usually I would say Mary Downing Hahn. I had others (Walter Dean Myers, R. L. Stine, Christopher Pike, to name a few), but she was always one. Then, as an adult a gal I met via pen palling said she liked her too, so we bonded over our like of this author.  And when I […]

“Lexicography Moves So Slowly That Scientists Classify It As a Solid”

Word by Word by Kory Stamper

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This book is just chock full of interesting nuggets of information (case in point: I considered titling this post “Did you know that the word “pumpernickel” comes from German for “fart goblin”?). In some ways the book is more interesting than it seems like it has any right to be. A book about writing dictionaries? Sounds boring, but Kory Stamper writes with humor (see post title) and an informal style that makes it an interesting and entertaining read. Each chapter focuses on an element of […]

Calling All Word Nerds

The Mother Tongue: English and How It Got that Way by Bill Bryson

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cbr category Question If you can draw one conclusion from this book, it could be that the English language, possibly more than any other, delights in being silly.  There is simply no other excuse for so many British town names, such as Great Snoring and Farleigh Wallop.  American English is no slouch in this department although one suspects its choice are more deliberate, such as Peeled Chestnut, Tennessee; What Cheer, Iowa; and Maggie’s Nipples, Wyoming. But the richness of the many various forms of English […]



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