Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Mio, My Son, an A+ read-aloud

Mio, My Son by Astrid Lindgren

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This is the 7th book in our read-aloud journey of 2025. (Previously featuring: The Hobbit, Travel Light, Mr. Popper’s Penguins, Jenny and the Cat Club, The Dragon of Og, and The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane.) Astrid Lindgren is most famous for Pippi Longstocking, but I was enchanted with the cover of this little book so I decided to read this one first.  Andy is an orphan who lives with his aunt and uncle in Stockholm. He is lonely and unloved, save for his neighbor […]

Short and sweet, with great illustrations

The Dragon of Og by Rumer Godden

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Our 2025 read-aloud journey continues! I found this one thanks to a list along the lines of, “If you liked The Hobbit…” We read it in one afternoon (it’s very short), and both kids give it two thumbs up. The titular dragon has a lovely home under a pool in a river belonging to Lord of Tundergarth, a home found for him by his thoughtful mother. He is a shy, quiet dragon who eats only one bullock every 2 or 3 weeks, from the cattle […]

Mr. Popper’s Penguins, or, what we read in a Japanese emergency room.

Mr. Popper's Penguins by Richard and Florence Atwater

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An hour before we landed in Kyoto, my son complained of a fever. Two days later, he was still in bed, nauseated, his fever ranging between 101 and 104. The next day, his fever disappeared…only to reappear with a full-body rash the next day. We were concerned about this rash because we live in the tropics, in a place where mosquito-borne illnesses are common, and we knew the signs of high fever, body aches, and a rash. As soon as I saw it, I thought, […]

Classic of Classics: The Hobbit

The Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkien

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Mr. Lux and I both have clear, fond memories of our introduction to this book: discovering an old copy sitting on a picnic table in a Texas playground, and starting to read with no idea what was about to happen (him) and of nightly out-loud reading after everyone was showered and in bed (me.) We have had this lovely illustrated version for several years, waiting for our eldest, now 9 years old, to pick it up and discover it. We got impatient, so I told […]



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