Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

May I Take Your Coat?

The North Wind and the Sun by Philip C. Stead

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Though the story within the pages of The North Wind and the Sun is one of “you get more bees with honey than vinegar” (I don’t like flies) is not new, but the way the author presents things takes on a fresh feeling. The art is child-like but far from childish. Perhaps more for an adult than the usual picture book crowd, this is a delightful book for anyone’s library. Philip C. Stead has adapted (or retold) a folk tale that I am unfamiliar with. Perhaps […]

Swedish-Vietnamese siblings in space!

Children of the Phoenix Vol. 1: The Eye of the Storm  by Oskar Kallner

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I found the part novel-part graphic novel Children of the Phoenix Vol. 1: The Eye of the Storm to be a fun space adventure with typical tropes. It is due in mid-December 2023, with book two due in summer of 2024.  Oskar Kallner’s story was not as detailed as I had hoped (there is a bit more “tell than show,” and has some repetition. Plus, the science information relies on the reader knowing some of it or having an idea about things already) but it was […]

The witch and werewolf go to school and some other things…but it’s not a romance

The Weirn Books, Vol. 1: Be Wary of the Silent Woods by Svetlana Chmakova

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Where do witches go to school? Well if you are the kids in this book, and are a special kind of witch called a Weirn, you go to the school the humans do. Only at night, after everyone has left and magic makes it morph into a school for the magical creatures. All the usual suspects are there in Svetlana Chmakova’s graphic novel, The Weirn Books, Vol. 1: Be Wary of the Silent Woods, the mean girl (who used to be a friend and has […]

Take That you meanie witch and your crazy, supernatural wild boar!

Took by Mary Downing Hahn

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The graphic novel adaptation of the novel Took, has similar qualities to other Mary Downing Hahn books and the “classic 1980s thrillers” I read as a kid (such as Pike, Stine, Cusick, etc.). Those themes are that the “stereotypical normal” (two parents, two to four kids, sometimes a pet or two, and having moved from the city to the country) has fractured and there is supernatural at work. It is a realistic thriller, but with folklore and legends attached. This is a familiar story (the […]

Getting in too deep

The Children of the Sea, Volume one by Daisuke Igarashi

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The Children of the Sea, Volume one is a typical manga illustrated graphic novel. It is sparse and not always expressive, or gives all the information you think you might be needing. Yet, there is something about it that draws you into things, and the story has enough teases to it, to make you (or at least me) want more. Daisuke Igarashi was new to me as an author/illustrator, but I am thinking I might want to look into The Children of the Sea series […]

Talking wordy to you

Maddie and Mabel by Kari Allen

The Magical Clay Doll : A Legend Retold in English and Chinese by Ning Sun

Maribel’s Year by Michelle Sterling

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Picture book round-up with a family and friendship theme attached to them! All titles are currently available but were read via an online reader copy. I like how the publisher copy of Maddie and Mabel by Kari Allen describes our young sisters, “two spunky sisters who navigate their relationship with humor and heart.” There is heart, some humor and a lot of spunk, but not everything is for everyone. The dynamic between the siblings is old fashioned, but is not dated. If you have a […]



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