Reaction cross sections with various kinds of breakup channels for neutron-rich carbon isotopes C18-20 and for Be-9 impinging on a liquid hydrogen target were investigated at 40 MeV/nucleon. The nuclides of interest were produced via projectile fragmentation from a 63 MeV/nucleon Ar-40 beam and were separated in flight at the RIKEN projectile fragment separator (RIPS). The combination of the large-acceptance superconducting TOF spectrometer, TOMBEE (TOF Mass analyzer for exotic BEam Experiment), with a liquid hydrogen target, CRYPTA (CRYogenic ProTon and Alpha target system), enables simultaneous measurements of several reaction channels: the reaction cross sections (sigma(R)), individual elemental fragmentation cross sections (sigma(Delta Z)), charge-changing cross sections (sigma(cc)), neutron-removal cross sections (sigma(-xn)), and charge-pickup cross sections (sigma(Delta Z+i)) for C-19,C-20.sigma(Delta Z), sigma(-xn), and sigma(Delta Z)+1 for C-18; and sigma(R) for Be-9. The present sigma(R) of Be-9 on proton, sigma(R) = 397 +/- 23 mb, measured in the inverse kinematics, was consistent with the previous measurements using proton beams at different laboratories. The sigma(R) of C-19 and C-20 on proton were determined to be sigma(R) = 754 +/- 22 mb and sigma(R) = 791 +/- 34 mb, respectively. Taking into account the beam energy and target dependence of sigma(R), the present sigma(R) are found to be considerably enhanced compared with those measured at around I GeV/nucleon. The sigma Delta Z+1 appears to increase with the mass number of the projectiles, and it significantly contributes to sigma(R) in the present energy range. The finite-range optical-limit and few-body Glauber model analyses were performed for sigma(R) to study the nuclear matter density distributions and to derive the relative strength of the s-wave components of the valence neutrons in C-19 and C-20. A neutron halo structure of C-19 is confirmed with an s-wave dominance of the valence neutron when the effect of the charge-pickup reaction is taken into account. The large sigma(-n) of C-19 and sigma(-2n) of C-20 also support the decoupled structures of C-18 + n and C-18 + 2n, respectively. The sigma(cc) of C-19 and C-20 agree with each other within their experimental uncertainties, which might indicate a similar proton density distribution in C-19 and C-20. The sigma(Delta Z) decreases monotonically without the even odd effect as the number of removed protons increases. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.