Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

We agree to disagree (Bingo Blackout!)

Pumpkinheads by Rainbow Rowell and Faith Erin Hicks

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#CBR11 Bingo: Two heads are better than one (would also work for Illustrated or Youths!) For two months of the year, all through high school, Deja and Josiah are best friends, while working at the local Pumpkin Patch extraordinaire. For four years, from the start of September until Halloween, they’ve been dutifully serving customers in the Succotash hut, and sharing pretty much everything with one another for those two months. Once they go back to school, they don’t really interact. This year is different. Deja and […]

Gentle, spooky fun for sensitive, younger readers

Ghoulia and the Mysterious Visitor: Book #2 by Barbara Cantini

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While not technically about Halloween, this second Ghoulia book fits the bill for a slightly spooky story for younger readers.  My second grader loved the first book, Ghoulia: Making New Friends Can be Scary, which is about an undead girl wanting to make friends with the town children.  So when I learned that the sequel was out, it was an automatic choice for an ‘All Hallows Read’ gift. In the first book Ghoulia learned about Halloween and made friends.  This time there is a mystery […]

You can’t silence Love

Love is Love by Marc Andreyko

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I wasn’t quite sure what to read for the Banned Book #CBR11Bingo square. And then my friend George shared an article about an Irving school district recently banning the comic book, Love is Love. It was sad and frustrating to learn. A tribute to the victims of the Orlando Pulse shooting was censored for “extreme homosexuality” by close-minded educators. I knew instantly I had to read this collection and review it for my first ever bingo. The book may be banned, but the message won’t be […]

A passionate author can make all the difference

Check, Please! Book 1 #Hockey by Ngozi Ukazu

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I had seen this floating around, but it wasn’t until I saw Ngozi Ukazu speak at the NYPL professional day at New York Comic Con this year that I really wanted to read it.  I had seen the cover and thought, “Oh, hockey, not really for me,” and passed it by. But seeing Ukazu speak so passionately about her work inspired me to seek it out. (Fun fact – my public library where I work did not have it, but the high school where I […]

A violent, sad, but very satisfying ending (Triple Bingo)

Locke & Key, vol 6: Alpha & Omega by Joe Hill and Gabriel Rodriguez

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#CBR11 Bingo: Not My Wheelhouse (horror) (Would also work for Illustrated) Spoiler warning! This is the sixth and final volume in the Locke and Key series. It is absolutely NOT the place to start. This review will probably contain spoilers both for earlier and this collection, so don’t read it unless you’re completely caught up. The first volume is Welcome to Lovecraft.  In this final volume, the Locke kids have to confront the evil that has been haunting their family for over a generation. If there was any doubt that […]

Not what I was expecting

No Ivy League by Hazel Newlevant

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This… was not what I was expecting.  With a title like this, I was assuming this was going to involve prestigious colleges.  Not even close. I picked this ARC up at BookCon this year. I went to the publisher, Lion Forge, because I wanted to get a ticket for Mooncakes the next day.  (Which I got. Woohoo!) They still had tickets for this, so I figured, “Why not?” This is a graphic novel memoir about a summer in the life of author Hazel Newlevant.  She […]



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