The Giant Pumpkin Suite by Melanie Hill - ADVISABLE

Hill, Melanie Heuiser The Giant Pumpkin Suite, 434 pages.  Candlewick Press, 2017. $17.  

Language: G (1 swear, 0 ‘F’); Mature Content: G; Violence: G.

Rose Brutigan was set to win the Bach Cello Suites competition. Then her grandfather-like next door neighbor has a nasty accident, leaving Rose and her twin brother Thomas to take care of his ‘giant pumpkin plant’. Thomas becomes enthralled with the plant, devoting every waking hour to it; but Rose has the Bach Cello Suites to think about. It is her life’s dream to play with world class cellist, Harris Waldenstein. But as the pumpkin grows in size, Rose grows to learn that there are more important things than her cello. Rose starts to learn just how beautiful she and her community are!

The Great Pumpkin Suite is an amazing book! Author Melanie Heuiser Hill did a fantastic job of capturing a struggling middle-schooler’s mind; every character had something about them that the reader could relate to. The plot is very defined, and it doesn’t ever go off topic, even with all of the twists and turns. Ms. Hill did a great job at describing modern-time communities, without all the stereotyping that some authors love. She added a great sense of learning how to tell right from wrong, and that sometimes that good and bad can overlap each other. The Great Pumpkin Suite has a wonderful sense of humor, adding just a touch of seriousness to make it more realistic. The book also includes interesting facts that put an interesting twist on the story; like one about Amazons (warrior women) cutting off one of their breasts to be better at archery. I recommend this book to any middle schooler who loves to read!

MS  - ADVISABLE. CRL, Student Reviewer, 7th grade