Special Needs – Cannonball Read 17

Wow

The Boy Who Said Wow by Todd Boss

September 24, 2024 by BlackRaven Leave a Comment

The Boy Who Said Wow by Todd Boss and illustrated by Rashin Kheiriyeh is currently available, but I read it via an online reader copy. Based on a true event (a 2019 Mozart concert performed in Boston, attended by a nine-year-old nonverbal child named Ronan) this is a delightful story about the power of music and words. When a mostly nonverbal child experiences a concert for the first time with his grandfather, in the silence of the aftermath he expresses what he is feeling with […]

Licking the wind

The Boy Who Loves to Lick the Wind by Finoa Carswell

May 31, 2024 by BlackRaven Leave a Comment

I love having a “book dealer” or aka the publishers who like to send me little gifts of books that I get to read then tell people about. One of these recent gifts was The Boy Who Loves to Lick the Wind by Finoa Carswell and illustrated by Yu Rong. And while I expected more actual wind licking (or what would pass as wind licking), what we do get is a fun and interesting story that includes a mixture of modern and classical tones to […]

Painting makes her fly

Woodpecker Girl by I-Tsun Chiang and Chingyen Liu

October 3, 2023 by BlackRaven Leave a Comment

A while back I found a book from Reycraft Books that (at the time) was a future publication. And since I enjoyed it and the person I was dealing with was so delightful to work with (I had asked for a reader copy and we conversed via email for a bit), I have found myself wanting to read more Reycraft Books. I found the title Woodpecker Girl in my research. Locating an online sample of the book, I realized that was not enough. I said, Pretty Please Library Loan Please, to […]

And this little Piglet came home

Piglet Comes Home: How a Deaf Blind Pink Puppy Found His Family by Melissa Shapiro

May 27, 2022 by BlackRaven Leave a Comment

When real Piglet the pup came home, they knew that the place was going to be their forever home. And unlike the humans of the picture book I read, the real-world humans, took a little more convincing. But either way, Piglet Comes Home: How a Deaf Blind Pink Puppy Found His Family was the result. Melissa Shapiro’s character bring homes a puppy. Well, at least the other dogs (all rescues) think it is a puppy. It is terribly pink, blind, and deaf. It looks more […]

When One Book Closes, here are two others

Wild about Dads by Diana Murray

Little Monster Trucks GO! by Doug Cenko

I Will Dance by Nancy Bo Flood

December 16, 2020 by BlackRaven Leave a Comment

I cannot concentrate on long novels of late. When that happens (and occasionally it does), I turn to my picture books (hence why this is number 3 of a list of picture books today). No theme to these. Just three books I read, I liked and wanted to pass along to you. Wild about Dads by Diana Murray (author), Amber Alvarez (illustrations) While I am giving this a 5, it is a 4.5 mostly because I wanted more! MORE dads and the things they do! […]

We need some space….and humans to do our dirty work.

Last Pick V01 Last Pick by Jason Walz

Last Pick: V02 Born to Run by Jason Walz

May 11, 2020 by BlackRaven Leave a Comment

You know this story. We have read it a hundred times: Aliens take over Earth, steal people for their own needs and eventually, humans decide to fight back. A few will die on both sides, but even more become heroes. And there is nothing wrong with that. Especially since Last Pick and Last Pick: Born to Run by Jason Walz have a few new pieces of information. This is a science fiction and realism mixed together creation. There is the classic graphic novel format and […]

Zirza on A Gothic Classic for a ReasonIt's one of those wish-you-could-read-it-again-for-the-first-time books. I loved it.
Emmalita on “It came to something when you found yourself hoping that the footsteps you heard were ghosts.”I loved the ending! I don’t think it’s been out long enough to talk about why though.
Dixie on Track Her Down by Melinda LeighI am just starting Track Her Down and I have read them all in order till now and thought I...
Roland of Gilead on How can you give us the gift of a crazy character named Rando Thoughtful and then just as suddenly take that gift away? We need to talk, Uncle Stevie.I came across this randomly years after it was written because I was searching "Random Thoughtful. But I have the...
Emmalita on “Only you, Em, would refer to heartbreak as a distraction. I think I would have a more sympathetic response if I asked to marry a bookcase.”Oh my goodness, Gallifrey was beautiful. I’m sure her mittens were gloriously murdery.

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