Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

To tell the truth, the whole truth

Muhammad Najem, War Reporter: How One Boy Put the Spotlight on Syria by Muhammad Najem

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cbr17bingo Diaspora (this could be culture, but he upheaval of the Syrian people unfortunately fits.) Sadly, this book, Muhammad Najem, War Reporter: How One Boy Put the Spotlight on Syria, is nonfiction. I say sadly as nobody, let alone children and teenagers should have to go through what he did. Muhammad Najem, Nora Neus and Julie Robine gathered their talents and told the story of Muhammad as he risked not only his life, but the lives of his family, friends and neighbors. He wanted to be […]

Finding Home

As Long as the Lemon Trees Grow by Zoulfa Katouh

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If you want a really tough read, and not just because of the theme, then pick up As Long as the Lemon Trees Grow by Zoulfa Katouh. None of the difficulties I had with this book comes from the story or even technically the writing itself. However, my issues were that the beginning is slow. There is a lot of build up, taking what feels like forever to “get to the point.” The author, like her main characters, are terrible flirts (as in they like […]

A soap bird and four seeds

Dounia and the Magic Seeds by Marya Zarif

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One day I was looking at my online reader copy list and said, “Today I read you.” Well, I never did read that book, but read Dounia and the Magic Seeds instead. I had no real intention of reading it. The cover art was cute, but was not “doing it” for me. I was sure Yvette Ghione was a lovely person, but that was not helping me get into it. But the day I looked at another book, yet clicking on Dounia, I knew it […]

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, […]

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. […]



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