Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

I’m not cold, just my habitat

Cold by Tim McCanna

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Cold is different for everyone. Poetry is different for everyone. And in Tim McCanna’s picture book, Cold, we get a lovely, lush illustrated book that has a story within the art as well as complimenting the text that deals with both subjects. The poetry is how the rhyming text with each page gives us a short burst of poetic information about how in cold there is life and how the cold itself is a character that moves about, leading us to the different places the […]

She blinded me with science… stories in rhyme

Meet the Universe: I'm a Black Hole by Eve M. Vavagiakis

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I’m a Black Hole by Eve M. Vavagiakis and Jessica Lanan being the illustrator, is currently available, but I read via an online reader copy. And I think twice. This might sound like, since I can’t remember it, that I did not like it, and maybe the first time it didn’t “grab my attention,” but this time around I appreciated it more. And that is why I should allow myself to read again, but there are so many new books out there. Like I’m a […]

A winter walk

A Quiet Conversation with the Snow by Lori Colvin

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A Quiet Conversation with the Snow by Lori Colvin and illustrated by Lee Steadman has a few tones and levels to it. The first thing I noticed was the repetition of the images. There is a lot of white and blue. When other colors come out, it is usually red and specifically the red of a male cardinal. This bird is on almost every page, allowing for the listener (and reader) to find it. Sometimes it is obvious and is the center of the back […]

2024 is going to be a busy year

Our Nipa Hut: A Story in the Philippines by Rachell Abalos

I Am Both : A Vietnamese Refugee Story  by Kerisa Greene

Two Homes, One Heart  by Jessica Young

All About Color by Elizabeth Rusch

Of Words and Water: The Story of Wilma Dykeman—Writer, Historian, Environmentalist  by Shannon Hitchcock

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It is a picture book reviewing round up time! My theme is that of cultures. Of course we know the concept of “country and culture” but sometimes a culture can be something you do not immediately think of.  Yelena and Papa take care of their nipa hut and it takes care of them in Rachell Abalos’s picture book, Our Nipa Hut: A Story in the Philippines. Due in February 2024, I was lucky enough to have my book dealer send me a finished copy, as this is a book that needs […]

May I Take Your Coat?

The North Wind and the Sun by Philip C. Stead

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Though the story within the pages of The North Wind and the Sun is one of “you get more bees with honey than vinegar” (I don’t like flies) is not new, but the way the author presents things takes on a fresh feeling. The art is child-like but far from childish. Perhaps more for an adult than the usual picture book crowd, this is a delightful book for anyone’s library. Philip C. Stead has adapted (or retold) a folk tale that I am unfamiliar with. Perhaps […]

Three biography reviews all in one place for your reading pleasure!

Dressing UP the Stars: The Story of Movie Costume Designer Edith Head by Jeanne Walker Harvey

Jose Feeds the World: How a famous chef feeds millions of people in need around the world by David Unger

The Snow Man: A True Story by Jonah Winter

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I like biographies. Mostly because you have to be pretty much into the subject to write about people. Granted, not all the time (you might be a contracted writer for a series) but when you have someone like Edith Head, the odds are you are a fan. Otherwise why would you write something about a person that famous, but not very “mainstream?” Oh sure, we know a little about her from the Disney The Incredibles movies, but that is nothing like the real woman. And […]



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