Cannonball Read 17

Before I started the picture book Modern-Day Princesses (Egalitè) by Luis Amavisca and Dolores Brown I thought that the woman in the top left corner of the cover was the actress Diona Reasonover (if you are unfamiliar with her, she plays Casey on the original NCIS television series). I felt this was a good sign and it meant I needed to read the book as I like Reasonover’s charac...

Bingo: Season. The small town featured is suffering through a season of drought Jane Harper’s The Dry is set in the small Australian town of Kiewarra. The town is in the middle of a terrible drought when the murder of a mother, father, and young son is discovered on their land. Based on the bodies’ conditions and location, it appears the father, Luke Hadler, murdered his wife an...

The beginning of Maggie O’Farrell’s Land finds ten-year-old Liam out in the woods in an unnamed, remote Irish peninsula with his father, Tomás. It is not long after the Great Famine decimated the population. At the behest of the British army, they are surveying the area to make accurate maps, interviewing the remaining locals to ascertain the names of hills, lakes, and other geo...

Once upon a time I was ignorant of Jason Reynolds the freaking awesome author. I do not remember which of his works I read first, but the Track series are the ones that stuck with me. The first four books are the kids the Coach trains, with each book done in its own style. With book five, Coach, it continues the world of Track and Field, learning, growing, and has its own format...

Frog and I have a similar issue. Sometimes, I just am not smiling. A lot of the time I’m just sitting quietly and have to deal with people telling me, “You’re so quiet!” or “Why are you grumpy?” or “Why are you not smiling/Smile more!” Well, the first is rude as I don’t ask you why you’re so loud. But the second and third is being presumptuous. This is my face. I don’t always wa...