The kids made us all wait until Christmas Eve to open our Cannonball goodies under the tree. What a treat!
Thanks Malin and The Mama. What a wonderful way to start off the holiday!
Again, our thanks to Jen K for organizing. Hope this becomes an annual tradition!!
When Malin sent a package to Joemyjoe and Bunnybean right at the start of the wonderful Cannonball Holiday Swap, they decided to leave the presents under the tree and open them on Christmas Eve.
And today, when I opened up a delightful package from The Mama, I was told I MUST DO THE SAME.
We will report in after opening, but they look wonderful and we are all happy as can be. Thanks!!
I read Chrissa, a book based on the 2009 American Girl doll of the year. It is about a girl named Chrissa and how she stood up to a group of mean bullies at her new school.
She’s the new girl, first of all, which must be so hard. Some mean girls named Tara (the head of the group), Jadyn (who follows along with everything and is sassy), and Sonali (who hates to be mean or hurt anyone but she is Tara’s best friend) gang up on Chrissa for no reason. Chrissa hates her new school. The only good thing she likes about it is that she made a new friend, Gwen, who Tara says is also a loser and they could both create their own little goofy club.
To make matters worse, Tara CUTS Gwen’s hair when Gwen closes her eyes. Then she lied that Chrissa was the one who gave such a terrible trim to Gwen’s bangs. Gwen didn’t even talk to Chrissa anymore, she was so angry! Until Chrissa finally told her parents everything, and her parents talk to the principal and teachers at the school, getting the mean girls in a bit of trouble. Sonali even quits being friends with the “mean bees”, and became friends with Chrissa and Gwen!
I liked Sonali, because she did what her heart told her to, Gwen because she was a good friend, and Chrissa because was strong and was a great main character. I watched the movie and I’m going to read the second book soon.
You can read more of Bunnybean’s reviews on her mom’s blog.
I read the third book in the Percy Jackson & the Olympians series: The Titan’s Curse.
Percy and his friends Annabeth and Grover are sent on a mission to find two new half-bloods at a boarding school in New Hampshire. Something goes wrong, there is a battle, and they are rescued by Artemis and her hunters. But Annabeth is kidnapped and may be in terrible danger, and it’s up to Percy and his friends to save her.
The goddess Artemis is also captured by someone that Percy and his gang don’t know. The half-bloods need to save Artemis and Annabeth, and stop a new villain called The General and their old enemy Luke from getting their evil army stronger.
Back at the camp, the students receive a prophecy that states:
Five shall go west to the goddess in chains,
One shall be lost in the land without rain,
The bane of Olympus shows the trail,
Campers and Hunters combined prevail,
The Titan’s curse must one withstand,
And one shall be perished by a parent’s hand.
The students who are sent on the quest are: Zoe and Bianca (two of Artemis’ best hunters), Grover, and Thalia. Even though Percy isn’t chosen, he tags along anyways. He really wants to save Annabeth.
It was hard to save Annabeth and Artemis, though.
Atlas was the person who captured them both. He made Artemis hold the universe for him, and he threatened that if she didn’t hold it, he would kill Annabeth. He wanted to get revenge on the gods. But Percy and his friends came along and saved them.
Sadly, only 3 people survived on this quest: Grover, Percy, and Thalia. Bianca sacrificed herself for the quest. And Zoe turned out to be Atlas’ daughter, who was killed in the battle against him.
But the quest had succeeded! And all is well until the next book, The Battle of the Labyrinth.
You can read more of Bunnybean’s reviews on her mom’s blog.
About 8 years ago, when Bunnybean wasn’t even a year old, we moved from Boston to the Washington DC area. And I went from being a working mom to a stay-at-home mom. And at first, I wasn’t very good at it. I couldn’t get Bunnybean to sleep when she was supposed to, and spent a lot of time driving around so that she would nap in her car seat. And then, randomly, one day, I saw Christa Miller (we loved her from Scrubs!) on the Ellen show talking about the book she had written the introduction to that was about helping your baby develop healthy sleep habits. I ran out to Borders the very next day and bought the book. And soon, Bunnybean was sleeping like a champ.
But I digress…because of this book, I started to pay a bit more attention to Christa Miller. I realized she was really smart and funny and watched CougarTown just because of her. She was one of the first people I followed on twitter. And she gives great book recommendations, too. She recommended Where’d You Go, Bernadette? months before I had heard of it. and so, a few weeks ago, when she said that she stayed up all night reading Lexicon, I knew I’d be reading it next.
Thanks, Christa. Another great choice.
Lexicon starts out with a man named Wil being accosted by two strange guys in an airport bathroom. They ask him a bunch of non-sensical questions and then inject a syringe into his eyeball, with no explanation. Bang — all of this in the first page or two, and the book barely lets up from there.
Told in alternating narratives and timelines, Lexicon is about a secret government agency that monitors the power of words and the persuasion that certain words have over certain people. The bulk of the plot is centered around an ancient and powerful word that is let loose in Broken Hill, Australia, provoking the citizens of the small town to commit unspeakable acts. Who brought the word there? And why?
Max Barry brings this crazy world alive with a lot of humor and action. I haven’t enjoyed an action book like this in quite a while — I hate to compare it to The Rook (because that book really does stand on its own), but Lexicon did remind me of it several times. But all in a good way. I really enjoyed it and will look forward to reading more Barry in the future.
I read this book from our public library. It’s about the four flower friends (Milla, Yasaman, Katie-Rose, and Violet), their year at school, and great big secrets: Milla’s going to go on a date with Max, Yasaman accidently kind of read a secret loveletter between her two teachers, and Katie-Rose is going crazy because she keeps getting mysterious stuffed hegehogs in weird places!
And why is the new girl (Hayley) hanging out with the “three evil chicks” from school? (Modessa, Quin, and Elena)?! Violet dosen’t know what’s happening with all her friends!
Milla’s date at the Olive Garden turns out really weird. Katie-Rose and her family come to the Olive Garden too, and Preston (a boy from class) really likes Katie-Rose so he makes the waitress give Katie-Rose the first mysterious hedgehog with her meal.
But the whole thing turns out really fine. Milla and Max have a great time, Preston just really loved Katie-Rose, and Hayley promises not to hang out with the bullies anymore. Everyone’s happy at the end. This is part of a series of books about the Flower Friends. I would like to read all of these books, and I really enjoyed reading it.
You can read more of Bunnybean’s reviews (and her brother’s, too) on her mom’s blog.
I listened to this audio book on the way to our family’s beach trip on Cape Cod. Its the second book about a boy named Percy Jackson (I alreadyreviewed book one of the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series, The Lightning Thief), who goes on a quest to save his beloved camp, Camp Half-Blood. Percy is the son of Poseidon, and Camp Half-Blood is a place where all of the children of the Greek Gods can live in safety.
Thalia’s magical tree that protects the camp’s borders from monsters is dying, and the magic is slowly fading away. And that means that there is no safe place for the half-bloods anymore. Percy and his friends Annabeth and Tyson (as well as Percy’s enemy Clarisse, daughter of Ares) go on a dangerous journey to save their old friend Grover, who knows where the famous Golden Fleece is. The Fleece is the only thing in the world that can cure Thalia’s magic pine tree.
Luke, a villain from the first book, is the one who poisoned the tree. He’s also trying to raise an army to destroy all of the half-bloods and the Gods on Mount Olympus.
Meanwhile, Polyphemus, a terrible cyclops, has captured Grover the satyr. Grover needs help and can also lead his friends to the Fleece.
While on their quest, the demigods face many terrible monsters, such as the hydra, the sirens, and Charybdis and Scylla. They travel on many different boats, and all of the either got lost, blew up, or sunk.
In the end, the get the Fleece and save Grover. The Fleece cures Thalia’s tree, and turns her into a regular girl again (she is the daughter of Zeus).
I really liked the new character of Tyson, a baby cyclops, who turns out to the Percy’s baby brother and new friend. I also liked Annabeth, Percy, and Chiron the centaur who helps to save Percy and get back to the camp.
I liked this book a lot and am already reading the third one!
You can read more of Bunnybean’s reviews on her mom’s blog.
A conversation between Bunnybean and Joemyjoe upon finishing Deadweather and Sunrise, the first book in the Chronicles of Egg series.
B: I liked Egg (the main character), Millicent (the girl Egg loves), and Burn Healy (a notorious pirate who helps them on their adventures).
J: I liked Guts. He was a pirate who helped Egg on his journey. I liked Egg, too. Egg was smart because he liked to read.
B: Egg’s family lived on an island called Deadweather. His dad sailed them over to another island called Sunrise one day, where they met a rich family, the Pembrokes.
J: The dad, Roger Pembroke, was a greedy businessman. He found out that Egg’s dad had a treasure map. Then he killed Egg’s family (but not Egg) to try and get the treasure.
B: Egg immediately fell in love with Millicent Pembroke, Roger’s daughter. They were very much alike and the both loved reading books. Plus, she was really pretty, but not too girly.
J: The Pembrokes were really rich and ate jelly bread all the time. Egg loved it.
B: The Pembrokes celebrated Egg’s birthday — the only time he had ever celebrated his own birthday. Mr. Pembroke was trying to be really nice to Egg, to try and adopt him. But all he really wanted was the treasure. He was going to adopt him and then kill him and inherit Egg’s treasure.
J: I felt really bad for Egg that his family died and he had to fight against the Pembrokes without them.
B: Egg and Guts stand up to Roger Pembroke in the end, and go off on a ship to try and find his family’s treasure. It made me want to read the second book. There were a few unsolved mysteries at the end that I want to know more about.
J: Burn Healy was supposed to be notorious, but he was actually nice. He saved Millicent from some other pirates because he didn’t think anyone should hurt children.
B: Roger Pembroke wanted Burn Healy to kill Egg, but Burn wouldn’t do it. Ripper Jones was a much worse pirate.
J: I think there will be more about Ripper Jones in the next book. And I think Roger Pembroke will keep trying to steal the treasure.
B: I bet their next adventure to the new lands will be dangerous. I hope they find the treasure. I hope Egg and Millicent get to see each other again.
J: I hope Roger Pembroke doesn’t get their treasure. I hope Egg and Guts are safe.
Four stars from Bunnybean. Five stars from Joemyjoe.
Bake Sale is a really cute graphic novel about food — the two main characters are Eggplant and Cupcake, who are best friends.
Cupcake has a problem: He wants to go to Turkey with Eggplant to meet Eggplant’s aunt’s friend, Turkish Delight, who is a great baker. And Cupcake owns a bakery!
So Cupcake starts saving up money by baking special things and having really popular bake sales. But suddenly, the printing company where Eggplant works is going out of business, so it looks like Eggplant won’t be able to go to Turkey. And Cupcake only saved up enough money for one ticket.
Of course, Cupcake decides to be a good friend and give Eggplant the money for the ticket. 
When Eggplant comes back, he brings lots of spices for Cupcake’s shop. And they see an ad for a baking contest in a magazine, where the winner gets two plane tickets to anywhere in the world! They start baking right away!
I really liked this story. I loved the characters of Cupcake, Eggplant, Carrot (a waiter in a restaurant), and Sugar (one of Cupcake’s best customers). The pictures are cute and a little bit silly and fun, and there are some recipes at the end of the book that sound delicious.
You can read more of Bunnybean’s reviews on her mom’s blog.
My teacher just finished reading this book to the whole class. Its about a boy named Gregor and his baby sister Boots. They get magically transported to the “underland”, which is sort of an underground world. They get sent on a quest to save their father, who is also missing in the underland. The people and creatures who live in the underland tell Gregor that they knew he would come, there was a prophecy about him coming to fight for them.
They meet a lot of different characters along the way: Luxa, who will someday be queen of the underland; Ripred, a rat who fights along with people; Ares, who is really strong; Henry, Luxa’s cousin; Vikus, Luxa’s grandfather; Temp and Tic, who are talking cockroaches; and Gregor’s Dad who has been kidnapped by rats.
I got kind of confused and jumbled up by all of the different characters, because every time I thought I figured out who was who, then more new characters would come.
Gregor and Boots fight against the rats and finally get their dad back.
I liked Tick, Aurora, and Boots. And my favorite part was when they got attacked by spiders.
There are more books about Gregor, and my teacher is soon going to read the second one to us. But if I could choose myself, I don’t think I’d keep reading this series.
You can read more of Bunnybean’s reviews on her mom’s blog.
Cannonball Read V 