Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Just Walk Forward

Last Flight by Kristen Mai Giang

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From Publisher Description of Last Flight by Kristen Mai Giang: On April 24, 1975 the last flight out of Saigon, Vietnam carried over 400 people to the United States, six days before Saigon’s surrender to the North Vietnamese Army.  I was a few months old in April, therefore, I obviously have no memory of this happening. However, when I learned that the war was still basically going and I was alive for it, it was an eye opener. I had always heard about the Vietnam […]

And you think your travels had bumps

Hakim's Odyssey: Book 2: From Turkey to Greece by Fabien Toulme

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CBR15Passport book set in and author from another country (from Syria, living in Turkey, trying to get to Greece and France)I was going to wait until I read volume three of Hakim’s Odyssey by French author Fabien Toulme (translation by Hannah Chute) before writing the review of Volume Two: From Turkey to Greece but was not sure when that would happen. And besides, Hakim’s Odyssey fills each book with enough so you do not have to know about three, you will just go to the […]

War can make anyone a refugee.

Hakim's Odyssey: Book 1: From Syria to Turkey by Fabien Toulmé

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Hakim’s Odyssey: Book 1: From Syria to Turkey by Fabien Toulmé, and translated by Hannah Chute, is a straight forward and complicated read. This is not the usual refugee/displaced person story that we think we know. Usually, we are watching them on boats, trying to escape whatever the tragic events are in their homeland. This time, in the (as close as humanly possible) words of one refugee, the “before that” is told. From Syria to Turkey, Hakim’s story unfolds, and while no two stories are alike, […]

Pride, culture and acceptance

The Blue Scarf by Mohamed Danawi

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I will start my review off with, there is absolutely nothing wrong with The Blue Scarf by Mohamed Danawi. Is it a bit saccharine-sweet? Sure. But that does not mean it cannot be good. It just means that a reader like me needs to be in the right frame of mind when reading it. And I was. Mostly. Okay, it was too cute for today. But ask me tomorrow. Or ask someone who likes emotion pulling tales and see what they think. Ask someone what […]

From civil war to safety

Stepping Stones: A Refugee Family’s Journey by Margriet Ruurs

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While the story presented in Stepping Stones: A Refugee Family’s Journey, is fantastic it is the art that really blew me away. It is an experience book that you must experience on your own, without any real background, to fully understand the delicateness of it all.  Margriet Ruurs found the artwork of Nizar Ali Badr online and found the artist after a lot of twists and turns. Long story short (you can read the story in the book), they collaborated. And Stepping Stones was born. […]

Time to tell a tale

The Moon from Dehradun: A Story of Partition by Shirin Shamsi

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cbr14bingo Time Level 2      Picture book are interesting. If you have a fiction story, well, that can go into any format (picture book, novel, verse). But if you have a non-fiction story or based on a true story and/or event, a picture book is not always my “go to” thought for a subject.  After all, picture books are usually aimed at ages five to eight, therefore, how do you talk about the displacement of Indian and Pakistani peoples when the two peoples have […]



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