Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Growing Up takes a lifetime

Tweak: Growing Up on Methamphetamines by Nic Sheff

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Tweak: Growing Up on Methamphetamines by Nic Sheff is a memoir in a journal format that takes us through drug addiction, sex addition, and mental health issues from the point of view of the user/addict/person dealing with the mental health issues.. The selfishness, the recovering, the relapses, and more selfishness cover each of the pages. We see Nic getting sober from his pills, pot, and alcohol only to get into harder and harder things until meth is King. Until his addictions to sex and drugs […]

Love, exciting and new

The Loud House Special: Love Out Loud by Loud House Creative Team

Love is for Roaring by Mike Kerr

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This review has a love theme. First, we have the graphic novel The Loud House Special: Love Out Loud by the Loud House Creative Team and second, the picture book Love is for Roaring by Mike Kerr. With the Loud Family we see the Loud Family and the way love is represented: between husbands and wives, boyfriends and girlfriends, girlfriends and girlfriends, between siblings, between animals and their human and even between the youngest Loud child and her love of a certain large fuzzy “man.” […]

Living that Summer Dream

Summer Spirit by Elizabeth Holleville

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Summer Spirit looked out from the top shelf. I am not sure how I saw it as my little over 5-foot frame does not usually see that far above my head! But once you learn the story, maybe you will think some supernatural events took place, making my eyes be drawn upwards. Or not. After all, ghosts are not real. No matter what Elizabeth Holleville says in their young adult graphic novel. Louise, her sister, and their cousins spend part of the summer with their […]

Not just the middle school blues

Other Boys by Damian Alexander

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We know this story: Boy learning who he is. And we know the story of Boy learning that he is Gay and that’s okay. However, Damian Alexander’s approach makes Other Boys a fresh take on that story. The use of the wording/phrase “other boy(s)” is used throughout the book. Sometimes it is, “You are not like the other boys” and sometimes a bit more subtle, but it is there. Sometimes it is a half-compliment and others times and out and out insult. Both will make […]

Family, Friends, Fashion

Lizard in a Zoot Suit by Marco Finnegan

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One crazy (not so little) book that takes you to the 1940s and shows us how fashion caused a riot. Or more accurately, the fact people wore something “different” and were “different” and the prejudices against being different caused people to cause a riot. Lizard in a Zoot Suit shows the layers of events that would lead to the events that would lead to the real-life Zoot Suit Riots. The fact there is a disguised Lizard creature trying to help two sisters when they find […]

Mirror Mirror on the Wall I’ve Become My Mother Afterall

I Am Not Starfire by Mariko Tamaki

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I Am Not Starfire is a lighthearted coming of age/this girl isn’t like the other superhero story.  There are several obvious situations and solutions, but Mariko Tamaki’s text makes them fun and while not necessarily fresh, they are enjoyable to read. There are several characters who are diverse (due to race, sexuality, or personality). Of course, the story of the superhero Titan Starfire is multi-layered: she is the ultimate immigrant (she is not from this world), she is a single mom, and she is raising […]



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