Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Watch your penguin… I mean baby!

Vampenguin by Lucy Ruth Cummins

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Vampenguin written and illustrated by Lucy Ruth Cummins cannot have 250 words written about it. When you say, “A baby vampire trades places with a penguin at the zoo for the day and they cause a bit of mischief.” You have said it all. Of course, you can then say things like, “Why were the parents so clueless?” They and the older sibling had plenty of opportunities to notice the change. Even if they are looking at the other animals or talking on the cellphone. […]

Let’s read about penguins in Feb… June!

Mr. Popper's Penguins by Richard and Florence Atwater

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I chose this as our February “Script-to-Screen Book Club” pick, mostly because we have the licensing to show the movie in my library.  It’s also on the “Battle of the Books” list for the 3rd and 4th grade in my area, so a win-win!  We’ll find out if people actually show up to the program! (Edit – they did not.) Mr. Popper’s Penguins was first published in 1938, and it shows a bit.  Mr. Popper is a house painter who doesn’t work in the winter […]

He Said Butt!

Where is My Butt? by Donald Budge

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I have said it before, and I will say it again: I was a ten-year-old boy in another life. There is nothing like some good “potty humor” jokes. (Now, that is debatable, of course, and changes definition from person to person, but I stick by my statement.) You know what you are getting into and where the story is going when you read the title of Donald Budge’s book, Where is My Butt? You know that there will be some potty jokes (after all we […]

One sled and some bad jokes make for two new early readers

Penny and Her Sled by Kevin Henkes

Little Penguin’s New Friend by Tadgh Bentley

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I do not read all of Kevin Henkes picture books and especially do not read his easier readers. (Or honesty, easy readers in general unless something really speaks to me). Yet, I was looking for something different and that different was when I found Penny and Her Sled by him. It was not either a picture book or an easy reader. But somehow both. This caught my attention. It is a sweet, cute and a fun not your usual snow book. Everything you know and […]

Five stars of adorable madness

Mr. Popper's Penguins by Richard and Florence Atwater

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In 2018 I went on a bucket-list trip to Antarctica and saw penguins. Always a fan of the adorable little birds (I mean, come on, that waddle!), I’ve become sort of obsessed. This new-found penguin mania resulted in a Sphenisciformes-themed Christmas, including a hard copy of the delightful 1938 children’s tale, Mr. Popper’s Penguins. I say delightful, but I might have easily said batshit crazy. I want whatever the Atwater couple was smoking when they wrote this. For context, Mr. Atwater died before publishing Mr. […]

Don’t let this one fly right by you.

Don't Be Afraid, Little Pip by Karma Wilson

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Karma Wilson is an author you love or hate. They have a signature style and do not vary from it. And like their other books, we have a story about positivity, bravery and spunk. You cannot get away from the feeling of Happy Feet or Happy Feet 2 (the first is where a penguin wants to do the unpenguin thing and dance; the other the penguin wants to fly but then finds his wings another way) in Don’t Be Afraid, Little Pip. Here Pip wants […]



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