Cannonball
Author: Sacha Cotter
Illustrator: Josh Morgan
Sourcebooks
Ages 3-8
This is a really sweet tale of growth, of self-love, and the universal lesson to follow one’s own heart and mind in the face of the chatter from the world.
In this book from New Zealand, a young Māori boy dreams of making a big splash. Literally. All he wants to do is be able to cannonball into the water. Everyone around him seems to be able to do it, and if you could cannonball, you were someone around these parts.
Try as he might, despite the lessons from his Nan, or the tips from his community, despite even his pre-game whispered pep-talk, his will to jump always fizzles as soon as he is at the diving board. Even his “belly flops fail to make a splash.”
Feeling rejected, and taunted by an onlooker that, “Cannonballs aren’t for someone like you!” he goes crawling to his Nan’s lap.
But Nan has one last piece of advice:
Listen to your heart, to your mind….Do it your way.”
“My way?”
“Yes, baby, all the way!”
Armed with permission to follow his own heart, the little boy suits up in his armor of flowers, face markings, and a new found spirit. Instead of whispering, the little boy shouts his pep-talk.
I shout out loud, because now I really see
That the voice I need to hear
Is the voice that comes from me!
And tumbles into a huge cannonball to much celebration.
This is a really sweet tale of growth, of self-love, and the universal lesson to follow one’s own heart and mind in the face of the chatter from the world.
Morgan’s illustrations are bold, bright, and fun and capture the sense of achievement appropriate for a victory this big. May all our personal victories be this big.
Cannonball (Support an Independent Bookstore)
Cannonball (Amazon)*
More books for this Age Group can be found here.
My thanks to Sourcebooks for providing a Review Copy of this book. All opinions provided herein are my own.
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