Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

“Could animorphing BE any creepier?”

The Message by K. A. Applegate

The Predator by K. A. Applegate

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As of book five, I have officially read an Animorphs book from each main character’s POV, and I gotta say, I’m a Marco girlie. But I was always a big fan of the funny short guy (Max Casella in Newsies, I’ll love you forever). In book 4, The Message, Cassie and Tobias begin receiving telepathic messages from an unknown creature in need. The group figures out it’s likely an Andalite that is seemingly stuck in their spaceship underwater, and they learn to morph into dolphins […]

From Canada to Hong Kong, with Love

Uprooted by Ruth Chan

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Ruth has only known life in Canada. But when her Chinese-born father has a job opportunity in Hong Kong, he and his wife excitedly make plans to move back to their home country, uprooting Ruth from the only life she has known. Her older brother is a boarding school student and gets to stay behind, so Ruth, their pets, and her parents set off to start over. At least, it’s starting over for Ruth. She speaks a little Cantonese, as her parents insist on using […]

Final Reviews of the Year :)

Save Our Forest! by Nora Dasnes

Camp Prodigy by Caroline Palmer

Crush by Tegan Quin & Sara Quin (Words) and Tillie Walden (Art)

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It’s probably fitting for me to wrap up the year with another middle grade graphic novel review roundup, considering how many comics I read this year. This was a good reading year for me overall, even with the gap during the summer for all the academic article/textbook I had to do. I think I was able to lean into reading for pleasure and having less stress about what specifically I was reading, and as a result I read a lot of things that I enjoyed […]

Historical middle grade with unions!

The Pecan Sheller by Lupe Ruiz-Flores

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The Pecan Sheller is set during the late 1930s and follows Petra, a thirteen-year-old girl who has to leave school and get a job shelling pecans after her father’s death in order to help her Amá pay the bills and take care of Petra’s younger siblings. While working in the pecan factory, Petra makes new friends, but also is confronted with terrible working conditions and seeing many people get tuberculosis and die. When one of her new friends dies and the factory owners want to […]

Fun Middle Grade Medieval Action Adventure

Crispin: The Cross of Lead by Avi

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I’ve been eyeing this book since it came out when I was probably 12 years old but it had never really clicked for me although I have enjoyed all the Avi I’ve read. The time somehow was right this month and I churned through this in short order. I think it was partially because all I was able to read for about two and a half months was reading for grad school and my brain was desperate for something adventurous and straight forward. Crispin: The […]

Middle Grade Graphic Novel Grab Bag

Lunar Boy by Jes and Cin Wibowo

How It All Ends by Emma Hunsinger

Tiffany's Griffon by Magnolia Porter-Siddell and Maddi Gonzalez

Plane Jane and the Mermaid by Vera Brosgol

Sink or Swim by Veronica Agarwal and Lee Durfey-Lavoie

Beetle and the Hollowbones by Aliza Layne

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As much as I am very grateful to be in grad school, I really missed getting to read for fun and so when I came home, I promised myself I could have an unfettered bookstore shopping trip. The result was a basket of so many books that the checkout guy said “Wow,” and a good proportion of those were middle grade graphic novels, because I love them. Lunar Boy is a sweet coming of age story that follows Indu. He was found on the moon […]



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