Cannonball Read 17

A sprawling tale of the complex and extremely bloody history of the melting pot that was early 17th century Haiti.  It’s a seething brew of the indigenous people of Haiti, slaves brought from Africa to work the sugar plantations, and the various European settlers from Spain, England, and especially France.  And although Haiti was a colony of France at the time, the French were n...

The problem with Vero’s advice not to go looking for chin hairs where there aren’t any is that there’s always a seven foot long chin hair to be found. She’s so young, she’ll learn mwuhahahaha… Also don’t go borrowing trouble is pretty good advice. But trouble is what Finlay Donovan is best at! In this book though, the focus is on intrepid nanny Vero Ruiz. This is the sixth book ...

In Francis Spufford’s imaginative Cahokia Jazz, life in the United States in 1922 is not as we remember it from the history books. The “Cahokia” of the title refers to a state run largely by and for Native Americans, as a partial monarchy informed by Catholic teachings. As a thriving state, Cahokia is attracting more residents from outside the indigenous popula...

2.5 stars Thank you to St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley for this ARC. My opinions are my own. This book will be out on May 19th. Josephine “JoJo” Burton runs away from her own wedding, after her childhood best friend, Cooper Watts, shows up unexpectedly from London just as she’s about to walk down the aisle, and makes her realise that she really doesnR...

Mac Barnett is one of my favorite picture book authors. My favorite book of his, The Important Thing About Margaret Wise Brown, is one of my favorite picture books period. I reviewed it here for this very reading challenge! So I eagerly preordered my copy of Make Believe, his first book for adults, a book about the craft of writing for children. I got tickets to see the launch e...