Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Get your red hot and garlic and BBQ and oh so much more crickets here

Chirp by Kate Messner

by Leave a Comment

Chirp is an age appropriate (10-14) book dealing with some heavy subjects.  But overall, they are presented respectfully and are accessible to all readers. There were a few bumps in the plot for me, but I felt it was a decent story and for certain the style that you have come to expect from the author. Kate Messner writes about Mia, a young girl moving back to Vermont after several years living in Boston. Her parents and she have come back to help her grandmother […]

Pride and Vanity

The Fate of Fausto: A Painted Fable by Oliver Jeffers

by Leave a Comment

After finishing the picture book, The Fate of Fausto: A Painted Fable by Oliver Jeffers, my thought was that this is not really for the picture book crowd. It is a very deep, impassioned story about a man who had everything but wanted more. He wants to own everything. And when he finds something that he could not have (a tree, mountain, the ocean), he would force that something to become owned by him. When he tries it with the ocean, you can imagine the disastrous results. […]

Do it your way.

Dress Like a Girl by Patricia Toht

by Leave a Comment

I consider myself a feminist. Perhaps a tad conservative to be honest, but I try to be in the middle of the spectrum. Therefore, when I see a new book about girl power, I am interested. My conservatism comes in with the thinking, “Is it going to be cliche? Is there something new or fresh to the theme? What jumps out to make this book better than the rest?” And the more the market is saturated with books like Dress Like a Girl, the more […]

A loving bond grows between the two unlikely friends

The Scarecrow. by Beth Ferray

by Leave a Comment

Erin and Terry Fan are at it again with their lovely illustrations in The Scarecrow. These works of art are the right colors, tone and filled with details that fit the theme and feel of the story. And while the story is a tad too sugary (in parts) for me, the illustrations help calm that effect.     With that said, Beth Ferry created a lovely book about love, friendship and possibly you could even say that it is a little bit about adoption as […]

Smackdown! Video Games vs. Medical School!

Level Up by Gene Luen Yang

by Leave a Comment

Off and on in my graphic novel and First Second researching, Level Up by Gene Luen Yang has come up. Yang is the author of American Born Chinese, the Boxers and Saints series as well as numerous other books and graphic novels. I had a passing interest in this book, but it was not first on my to be read list. Thursday night I was walking home, my path taking me past the library. I had a few minutes, went to their young adult graphic […]

Two heads are better than one, unless you are a PushMe-PullYou

My Father’s Words by Patricia MacLachlan

by Leave a Comment

#cbr11bingo #TwoHeadsareBetterThanOne My Father’s Words by Patricia MacLachlan is a modern story with the classic elements of loss, family, friendships and growth. While some areas are based on the authors own life, this is a fictious story about a young girl, Fiona, and her family dealing with the loss of her father. Told in Fiona’s voice, we see the past mixed in with the current grief the characters all share. But a grief all must process differently. Like many of MacLachlan’s stories, this is a sweet story. […]



Help Our Mission

You can donate to CBR via:

  1. PayPal
  2. Venmo