Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

When the romance isn’t too believable

Moonstruck Vlume 3 Troubled Waters by Grace Ellis, Shae Beagle

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I wasn’t too sure about the Moonstruck series after volume 2; volume 3 has redeemed things a bit. Even though it kind of splits of the coffee shop gang a little, with Chet (centaur) going off for an internship and Julie goes with Selena to a mermaid Festival. Most of the volume follows Julie and Selena, who meet up with Selena’s friend and roomie, the mermaid Skyla (Julie apparently has never met her and didn’t know Skyla and Selena live together). Naturally things don’t go […]

Spunk is the name of the game!

Julia’s House Moves On by Ben Hatke

Oona by Kelly DiPucchio

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Spunk is the name of the game with Julia and Oona. Two different gals, but who both know how to “get-r-done!” Julia’s House Moves On is the latest in the Julia books by Ben Hatke (an author who covers several age ranges with their books, this being for the 5 and up crowd). This darn cute story about “best laid plans” and how things will work out for the better just is silly, funny and educational. As the joke says, “You want to make God […]

Dark stuff of fairy tales

Of Salt and Shore by Annet Schaap

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Do you want to read The Little Mermaid story but with a big twist? Okay, maybe that is not enough. How about do you want to read about a young girl who is dealing with the death of her mother, her father’s drinking, keeping the lighthouse light burning and a real do-gooder teacher? I will loss in a boy who lives in the houses tower and likes biting people as they come into his room (after all, he has to keep up that “monster” persona), […]

Once there was a mermaid

The Magic Threeof Solatia by Jane Yolen

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Jane Yolen has been called America’s Hans Christian Anderson. It is an apt comparison. Most of her work is either for children or young adults, yet the work has that quality that can also attract adults. There is much going on there. Magic Three of Solatia functions in part as a reply to Andersen’s Little Mermaid. Not the Disney version with its happy ending but the dark original tale. In that one, the prince is, perhaps, not truly deserving of the mermaid’s love. Yolen looks […]

This ridiculous book taught me the word ‘mucosal.’ …Yay?

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This was totally silly, but a fun kind of silly! I mean, it tries real hard to be serious and scientific, but no. A book about a bunch of scientists sailing out to the Mariana Trench to find killer mermaids has to be at least a little silly. Years ago, a SyFy channel knock-off sent a bunch of faux-documentarians out to sea to film a search for mermaids. Their ship was found empty, and the recovered footage showed creatures that the world dismissed as hoaxes. […]

Julián Is a Mermaid

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Julian loves mermaids. And one day, while riding the subway home with his Abuela, Julian notices three women spectacularly dressed up. They are mermaids! Imagining himself as a mermaid, Julian’s dream is interrupted when they must get off the subway. But that does not stop him. He finds a way to continue using his imagination. It is Abuela that also finds a special way to help him celebrate mermaids and who he is. This is another book about being yourself and celebrating that difference.  The […]



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