Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

The reviews I forgot to post, part 2!

Unplugged and Unpopular by Mat Heagerty, Tintin Pantoja, and Mika Amante

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I heard about this book at Comic Con (or Book Con, I can’t remember.)  It’s the story of a middle school girl, Erin Song, who loses her technology privileges and can suddenly see aliens!  Erin is not the most popular kid in school, so when the popular girl in her class asks her to help her cheat on a quiz, Erin agrees.  But then she gets caught, and her parents take away all of her screen time – phone, laptop, tablet, tv, and video games.  […]

Steel Prince conclusion

Shades of Magic: The Steel Prince vol. 3 - The Rebel Army by V.E. Schwab (author), Andrea Olimpieri (artist)

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“The Steel Prince” graphic novels can be read standalone without having read the “The Shades of Magic” novels but I’m not certain how well that works as the graphic novels don’t spend time on the magic system, and magic is a vitally important part of this world setting.  Though mileage may vary, my friend was introduced to Schwab through the individual comic issues of this series and enjoyed it without prior knowledge. The Rebel Army is the final volume in V.E. Schwab’s, “The Steel Prince” […]

“Guts” delivers and important message to younger readers about mind/body connection

Guts by Raina Telgemeier

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Raina Telgemeier returns to the autobiographical in Guts.  I’m late to the party on this book as my 13 and 9 year old have read it multiple times since its release in 2019.  For those familiar with Telgemeier’s autobiographical graphic novels, this is a story in which Raina is younger than in Smile or Sisters.  She’s in fifth grade and has begun having stomach troubles.  It started with a round of stomach flu going through her family and school.  But afterward Raina begins to obsess about the […]

Not as good as I hoped

To Drink and to Eat, Volume 2 by Guillaume Long

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When I request a book from NetGalley, I have high hopes that I will enjoy it. I have loved graphic novels that are cookbooks or food centric memoirs. I think communicating about food lends itself to illustration. Cartoonist Guillaume Long writes a culinary comic for Le Monde, “To Drink and To Eat.” While I wasn’t familiar with him, he is apparently well loved. Unfortunately, Long got on the wrong foot with me by writing a jokey little story with recipe about Paul Gauguin moving to […]

Devil’s Night

Blood Sugar by Daniel Kraus

The Crow by James O'Barr

The Transgressors by Jim Thompson

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Happy Halloween! Preceding this Devil’s Night, I had a full day off and caught up on a lot of reading. It was a relief to get these three off the TBR list. All were good in their own respective ways. Blood Sugar 3 stars “A” for effort on the language, which is written in the slang of what Daniel Kraus thinks is a modern day teenager. I found it too distracting. But much like Nico Walker’s Cherry, when I was able to get used to it, […]

Magical Friendship: cbr12bingo – “Friendship”

Phoebe and Her Unicorn in The Magic Storm by Dana Simpson

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“Phoebe and Her Unicorn” began as a web comic by Dana Simpson in 2012 and then a few years later became a syndicated comic strip in newspapers, that is still in active publication.  The first five books in the series are compilations of those comics.  Phoebe and Her Unicorn in The Magic Storm is the first standalone graphic novel. Phoebe is an average girl who befriends a unicorn, Marigold Heavenly Nostrils.  Together they tackle the mundane, school, to adventure, like when they solve mysteries as the […]



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