Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Just Walk Forward

Last Flight by Kristen Mai Giang

by Leave a Comment

From Publisher Description of Last Flight by Kristen Mai Giang: On April 24, 1975 the last flight out of Saigon, Vietnam carried over 400 people to the United States, six days before Saigon’s surrender to the North Vietnamese Army.  I was a few months old in April, therefore, I obviously have no memory of this happening. However, when I learned that the war was still basically going and I was alive for it, it was an eye opener. I had always heard about the Vietnam […]

ChooChoo! I’m going home!

The Train Home by Dan-Ah Kim

by Leave a Comment

I grew up in a town (not a city), in a house (not an apartment), but I had a sister who bothered me, parents who did parent stuff, and my grandparents lived upstairs. Thanksgiving and Christmas mornings I never slept in, not because of the excitement, but because my grandmother’s kitchen was over my bedroom and I could hear her mashing, chopping, and walking about (thin walls and a grandmother who got into her work make for an interesting combination).  But I can relate to […]

I tried to make a plane joke, but it didn’t land

Flying Machines: Howe the Wright Brothers Soared. by Alison Wilgus

Science Comics: Rockets: Defying Gravity. by Anne Drozd and Jerzy Drozd

by Leave a Comment

Learn about how we fly without wings through the voice of the Wright brother’s sister in Flying Machines: Howe the Wright Brothers Soared. The history of flight is introduced with, first a story presentation of the facts, and second with pages of the technical presentation. The use of color and details to separate these two sections helps alert you to the change. Part history and part science story, we meet not only the Wright brothers in this graphic novel by Alison Wilgus, but we also […]

Choo-choo ch’boogie

Two Little Trains by Margaret Wise Brown

by Leave a Comment

Like the Two Little Trains of the story, this story chugs along, building steam until you get to the end. It is here, it fizzles out. It just ends. There was nothing in between just watching the two trains go along the tracks. There is great potential for something to happen, but nothing does. Now, I am not looking for a train crash, but maybe a race where they tie. Or maybe people talking about how much fun they are having. Or maybe there are […]

Would you like to ride in my beautiful balloon

A Dream of Flight: Alberto Santos-Dumont's Race Around the Eiffel Tower by Rob Polivka

by Leave a Comment

#cbr11bingo #TrueStory A Dream of Flight: Alberto Santos-Dumont’s Race Around the Eiffel Tower is one of those powerful books that gives you a piece of history you might not be familiar with. Though not an all-encompassing/text-book look, it is a complete and general look at the history of flight in its early years. And it also gives you the story of one person who did much to get it to what we know as aviation today. Years before the Wright Brothers, a young Brazilian man-made history […]

Obviously when pigs fly…..

by Leave a Comment

The saving grace for The Dreamer is at the very end. I liked the “full circle” of the pig “admiring the birds” at the start and finish. The in-between is what I am not crazy about. The theme of “keep trying” and “making mistakes” has been done. Many times. The only difference here is that the friends and neighbors of the pig help him. Usually the “keep trying” is seen as a solo act. And the pig listens to the other animals. That seemed like […]



Help Our Mission

You can donate to CBR via:

  1. PayPal
  2. Venmo