Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

The girl, the mother, the countess and the parrot

The Hotel Balzaar by Kate DiCamillo

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Author Kate DiCamillo is one of those authors I find myself having hits and misses with. I still consider her an author I enjoy, but I’m not always the audience she was going for. With that said, I was excited when I found a copy of The Hotel Balzaar (illustrated by Júlia Sardà) in our (unfortunately) damaged books. I had been wanting to read something that was a novel to break my graphic novel habit (as you know a favorite genre) but nothing too heavy. […]

Orris and Timble are back for round 2

Orris and Timble: Lost and Found: (A Sweet and Funny Early Chapter Book About Friendship, Trust, and Finding Your Way) by Kate DiCamillo

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Orris and Timble: Lost and Found: (A Sweet and Funny Early Chapter Book About Friendship, Trust, and Finding Your Way) by Kate DiCamillo and illustrator Carmen Mok is a sequel of Orris and Timble: The Beginning. It has many elements and pieces from book one, though we see more of Timble’s journey this time. However, when I started it I thought I was reading book one again. This took me out of the moment for a while. And, in fact, had to back track while […]

Well, this one made me cry.

The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane by Kate DiCamillo

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One of my new year’s resolutions was to be more intentional about reading chapter books to my kids (ages 7 and 9) on a regular basis – with the goal being a book a month, say, or a big book that we have started but never finished (looking at you, The Hobbit) I hope to incorporate my thoughts on how read-aloud-able these books are in my CBR reviews – maybe it will help fellow parents on similar reading journeys! Anyway, we started the year off […]

A sudden sound of wings and screech sends our hero on an adventure of his life time

Orris and Timble: The Beginning by Kate DiCamillo

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Orris and Timble: The Beginning is pure Kate DiCamillo. Part Romeo and Juliet (enemies to friends), part the Lion and the Mouse (a rat saves an owl) and part a grandparent/grandchild relationship (even though there is a grumpy older rat and a young owl). This story is sweet, funny, and a little bit tense (after all, even if an owl says it is too scared to eat you, can you really believe it? Especially with those large and dangerous talons?). When Orris, the rat, hears […]

Of mice and soup

The Tale of Despereaux by Kate DiCamillo

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Cbr14bingo Cozy “being the story of a mouse, a princess, some soup, and a spool of thread” This charming Newberry Award winning story is about a heroic little mouse and the princess he loves. It’s also about the pitfalls of being an outsider and the power of forgiveness. Despereaux’s family marks him as different and doomed from the moment he is born. Too small, with ears too big and born with his eyes open (an ill omen), everything about the little mouse disappoints his parents […]

All For One and One for All…and a Baton Twirl to seal the deal

Raymie Nightingale by Kate DiCamillo

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I read Kate DiCamillo’s Three Rancheros series out of order. I read Louisiana’s Way Home a few years back and just finished Raymie Nightingale yesterday afternoon. You can read them out of sequence, but it helps a little to know what happened in Raymie’s world first. Because of this order of reading, I think Louisiana’s story was stronger. Maybe it was because I was introduced to her first, or maybe because I have heard Raymie’s story before: the father leaves his family for another woman. […]



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