Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Coffee, unicorns and music

Shy Steve by Katerina Spaeth

Giddy Up, Unicorn! by Dani Gomez

Eloísa's Musical Window by Margarita Engle

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Picture books all around me. How many can I read? Well, I try to read all of them, but of course, it’s impossible. So, I do the best I humanly can to make sure I find the right one(s) for me. Then, I narrow it down to the ones I want to review. That is not as easy as it sounds. But I was able to find a few for this review. All were read via online reader copies. We can start with Shy Steve […]

“Maybe all I need is a purpose.”

Singing With Elephants by Margarita Engle

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11-year-old Oriol wants to go back to Cuba. Ever since her grandmother died, she’s felt lost at her Santa Barbara, CA home. School is difficult, her older sister has less time for her since she got a boyfriend, and the only place she is truly happy is helping her parents at their veterinarian clinic. This clinic is no ordinary vet: her parents are specialty vets, assisting with wild and unique animals. In a show-biz state like California, they have a lot of work. One day, […]

A boy who was inspired by his culture and people, the classics of Western society and made his own mark on poetry

With a Star in My Hand: Rubén Darío, Poetry Hero by Margarita Engle

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Probably as dramatic and romantic as the poet himself, the life of one poet Ruben Dario, is introduced to readers in this prose poetry novel. While the information is based on events in his autobiography, With A Star in My Hand: Ruben Dario, Poetry Hero fells like the author, Margarita Engle, has taken a smidgen of poetic license to what is presented. Overall, this is a fun way to be introduced to a poet you might not be familiar with, but also an interesting format […]

Well-behaved women seldom make history

Rima's Rebellion: Courage in a Time of Tyranny by Margarita Engle

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CBR15Passport Book I own Rima’s Rebellion: Courage in a Time of Tyranny is an interesting book. First, it is prose poetry and while that is usually a good thing for me, I am not sure this was the best format for the subject. Second, it is confusing what age(s) it is aimed for. The tone of the book is for a middle-grade reader (at least aged 10 and up), but the subject matter is more mature. If this was Margarita Engle’s first novel, that bump […]

The fun of family

Hide and Shh!: A Not -So-Sneaky Sister Story About Inclusion by Christina Dendy

A Song of Frutas by Margarita Engle

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These books have a loose connecting theme. Not only are they picture books, but they are about things that we might not be exposed to often. I mean A Song of Frutas and Hide and Shh!: A Not -So-Sneaky Sister Story About Inclusion are about the fruit vendors of Cuban, with Spanish words mixed in and two siblings, one who lives with Down Syndrome, finding common ground (and the not exposed to is having a special needs sibling). I grew up with first cousins, a […]

When you’re lucky and you find one bad a$$ writer!

Dreams from Many Rivers: A Hispanic History of the United States Told in Poems by Margarita Engle

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Dreams from Many Rivers: A Hispanic History of the United States Told in Poems created by Margarita Engle are romantic in places and always serious with her pride in her heritage. And while history tends to “lump” Spanish, Mexican, Cuban, Native and other “Hispanic peoples” into one group, Engle shows how each one is separate, how each interacted with the others how Moctezuma’s great-granddaughter could also be Cortez’s great-granddaughter. The mix of historical and fiction characters is a nice touch. Each poem shows how history […]



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