Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Navigating grief and mermaids in the Caribbean

A Comb of Wishes by Lisa Stringfellow

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Kela and her father have been pretty lost on their Caribbean island of St. Rita since Kela’s mother died. Her father spends his days manning his shop while Kela avoids friends, collecting sea glass for her jewelry projects. One day, she finds a mysterious looking antique comb in a coral reef. She is drawn to it. What she doesn’t realize is that she has stolen a mermaid’s comb, and its owner Ophidia is crushed by its loss. Her grudge against humans doesn’t leave Ophidia feeling […]

An Intense, Important Middle Grade

Lion of the Sky by Ritu Hemnani

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I was immediately intrigued by the cover of Lion of the Sky with the two boys flying kites, and when I read the synopsis I knew I wanted to read it. For some reason I’ve been coming across more books, and middle grade ones at that, talking about the Indian Partition and the experiences of those who survived. This was my first story which focused on a Hindu family migrating from Pakistan, and the similarities and differences of the experiences are striking, and utterly heartbreaking. […]

Dorothy Dingle: the Perfect Mother

The Tenth Mistake of Hank Hooperman by Gennifer Choldenko

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After his mother has been gone for a week, eleven-year-old Hank and his toddler sister Boo are forced to seek out the stranger listed as their emergency contact. But with Lou Ann’s help comes social workers and a new school, and Hank worries he might have made a huge mistake. I don’t read much middle grade nowadays, but I was intrigued by this book because I haven’t read any middle grade book dealing with foster care and parentification before. The author’s note about her own […]

Seizing Your Own Destiny

The Princess Protection Program by Alex London

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When Rosamund is awoken from a hundred year sleep by a stranger’s kiss, she runs from him – and escapes into a strange school to join other fairytale princesses (and a prince) trying to avoid their futures. But all is not as it seems, and the headmistress may be keeping a sinister secret. At some point in the 2010s fairytale retellings seemed all the rage. I enjoyed them generally until they started blending together, but that doesn’t mean I’m not always up for a new […]

Childhood Nostalgia / American Propaganda

The Kachina Doll Mystery by Carolyn Keene

The Long Winter by Laura Ingalls Wilder

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I devoured both the Nancy Drew and Little House books when I was in elementary school, so it feels a little odd to read them in such close succession now. I still enjoy them, but I’ve rather lost the cuddly feeling since then. It’s more obvious to adult me that the books were written in the expectation of reaching a certain sort of child, and that child did not look like me. The Kachina Doll Mystery – 3 stars When Nancy Drew is summoned to […]

Witnessing History on the Ground

Brave Bird at Wounded Knee by Rachel Bithell

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When the occupation and siege at Wounded Knee hits the news, Patsy’s classmates are annoyed or dismissive, but Patsy is worried for her aunt’s family, who live nearby on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. When I was younger I was completely hooked on those Dear America diaries about girls living through turbulent eras of American history. There was something about getting an average girl’s perspective of historic events that really immersed me in the story. Brave Bird at Wounded Knee follows a similar format, though […]



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