Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Nothings Need to Be Heard

Real by Carol Cujec & Peyton Goddard

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It’s not often these days that I read a book and sit with it afterwards wishing there was a way to force every person on the planet to read it, but Real is that book for me. We follow Charity Woods, a non-verbal teenager with Autism who struggles to get people to believe that she is intelligent and can hack it in a mainstream classroom. From the very first paragraph of the book,  “My name is Charity. I am thirteen years old. Actually, thirteen years […]

Emmie is a Gem of a girl

Invisible Emmie by Terri Libenson

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Invisible Emmie is another gem in the author/illustrator series of middle school. Terri Libenson has taken her character Emmie and shown her through her own eyes. As well as showing some of the characters from the other books in a different light. When you see a person through another character’s eyes you start to get a bigger picture of the world Libenson wanted to tell. And that story is the world of middle school. Yet, each character is one that we know, want to be […]

I see your “Snake Jazz” and Raise You LIZARD MUSIC!

Lizard Music by Daniel Pinkwater

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I found a new favorite author back in April of this year when I FINALLY read Kelly Link’s Magic For Beginners. The titular novella (within a collection of stories) immediately reminded me of, to plagiarize myself, “two of my all-time ‘is this really happening’ favorites: Daniel Pinkwater’s Lizard Music and Nickelodeon’s Pete and Pete.” While I have not watched any Pete and Pete recently (although I really should), I did impulse buy a fun new paperback edition of Lizard Music back in October. Instead of giving in to my […]

Crazy New BEST Friend?!

I Want to be Where the Normal People Are by Rachel Bloom

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I must start by thanking ASKReviews for letting us all know that there was a SECRET MUSICAL in the middle of this audiobook! I heeded their recommendation to “Get the Audio Version”, and boy howdy am I glad I did! Not only do we get a musical adventure about Rachel Bloom’s desire to be a musical theater STAAAR, the musical is performed by her harmonizing with herself, herself, herself, herself, and maybe another Rachel Bloom or two. Bloom’s voice is so important here; her style, […]

The kids are alright

Dress Coded by Carrie Firestone

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I finished this lovely novel and immediately downloaded it to my tween’s Kindle so she could read it, too. (She did not. I regret every time I try to make her read something and she insists on choosing her own reading material. It’s the worst.) Dress Coded opens with Molly Frost interviewing her classmate Olivia for a podcast. Olivia is currently the most hated girl in 8th grade. See, Olivia was busted for a dress code violation and in doing so, lost the entire class […]

Self-love out of self-loathing: Genesis Begins Again

Genesis Begins Again by Alicia D. Williams

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Genesis has taken hating herself to a new level: she has a long list of reasons she can’t stand herself and she’s adding to it every day. She gets help, too: from her father, who can’t help commenting in his drunken rants on how she had to end up dark like him instead of light like her beautiful mother, to the kids at school who’ve covered every cruel name for her dark skin.  Genesis has a hard time making friends anyway. Every time she starts […]



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