Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Silent music for peace

Music and Silence: The Passion and Protest of Pablo Casals by Christy Mihaly

by Leave a Comment

Music and Silence: The Passion and Protest of Pablo Casals is just a WOW book. It is beautifully written, beautifully illustrated and beautifully presented.  Christy Mihaly and illustrator Mariona Cabassa made this (due mid/later April 2026) book about a person and story I do not think I had ever heard of before. It is more emotional than an action story, but there are events that have the action, too. We see how the power of music can try and topple governments. We see how one […]

Davis lecturing and marching.

Be the Light: How She Became Angela Davis by Daria Peoples

by Leave a Comment

Do you know who Angela Davis is? If you do, you are one up on me. I had never heard of them, or if I had it was just a footnote in history. And to be honest, Davis deserves to be more than a footnote. She needs her own thousand paged book. Instead I must settle for the clever picture book (currently available but read on line) Be the Light: How She Became Angela Davis written and illustrated by Daria Peoples. Davis was born in […]

The icon, the myth, the woman

Can You Imagine?: The Art and Life of Yoko Ono by Lisa Tolin

by Leave a Comment

The spirit of Ono is captured in lovely words and images in the pages of Can You Imagine?: The Art and Life of Yoko Ono by Lisa Tolin and illustrated by Yas Imamura. Though currently available, I had the opportunity to read it via an online reader copy. And though I might not get a finished copy for myself, I do highly recommend getting a copy for yourself, your child and local library or libraries. This is not just a book about Yoko Ono. It […]

She was “Sick and tired of being sick and tired.”

The Story of Fannie Lou Hamer: An Inspiring Biography for Young Readers (The Story of Biographies) by Margeaux Weston

by Leave a Comment

She was born Fannie Lou Townsend. She became Fannie Lou Hamer after marrying. She would be born to a large family (20 children) run by sharecropper parents. She did as much schooling as she could, leaving school at a young age, but continuing to read and learn whenever she could.  As she grew she felt that having to work so hard for little results, the discrimination, having to struggle to take care of a family, and having no rights because she was a black woman […]

The first woman to sit down was a teenager

Claudette Colvin: I Want Freedom Now! by Claudette Colvin

by Leave a Comment

We know Ruby Bridges, Rosa Parks, Dr. King and more of the civil rights movement people, but do you know Claudette Colvin? She was a teenager who one day was sitting on the bus. She was, like Rosa after her, tired and knew her rights. She said No, I’m not giving up my seat. She would be yelled out, arrested and charged with numerous crimes (none of which were true). And her mother and preacher would bail her out of jail. But that was not […]

Beautiful reads

Seeker of the Truth: Kailash Satyarthi’s Fight to End Child Labor by Srividhya Venkat

A Song For August: The Inspiring Life of Playwright August Wilson by Sally Denmead

Love of the Half-Eaten Peach by Lee Wind

by Leave a Comment

I debated if I should write a review about three books I only read as samples. Yet, I realized that they are must know about and I do not think they will have any surprises when they finally come out.  All were read via online samples of the picture book. In mid-late July 2024 we will see Seeker of the Truth: Kailash Satyarthi’s Fight to End Child Labor. Srividhya Venkat’s book was the one that had the smallest sample, but I was hooked. Starting as […]



Help Our Mission

You can donate to CBR via:

  1. PayPal
  2. Venmo