Giant Pumpkin Suite

One of the best young adult books I’ve read in a while. It features 12-year-old Rose, a gifted cellist who’s obsessed with Bach’s Solo Cello Suites. Her twin brother is obsessed with growing a giant pumpkin. I don’t want to give away the whole plot, but it is a sweet story about all the good things about childhood in summer: sunny days, siblings, friends of all stripes, Bach, treasured books, old musicals, good food, and at the very middle of it all, a giant pumpkin. If you enjoyed Virginia Euwer Wolff’s The Mozart Season, Patricia McLachlan’s The Fact and Fictions of Minna Pratt, and Bruce Brooks’ Midnight Hour Encores, you will probably like this book. I’m giving this book five stars because it’s a highly enjoyable show more and a relatable depiction of a gifted young girl’s coming of age. show less

In this story for middle grade readers, twelve-year-old Rose Brautigan is a driven cello player and something of a prodigy. Her goal is to win the Bach Cello Suites Competition. She has a fraternal twin, Thomas, but he is much more relaxed and fun-loving than Rose, who thinks she must do everything perfectly.

Thomas spends a lot of time helping his older neighbor, Otis Pickering, and as the story begins, Mr. Pickering has fallen down his basement stairs. Thomas finds him, and calls the ambulance as well as alerting all the neighbors. (This Minnesota neighborhood as depicted by the author is a veritable United Nations, with people from all countries and colors and even a token gay couple. Furthermore, everyone acts like one big happy show more family. It seems a bit contrived.)

At the time he fell, Mr. Pickering was trying to water a giant pumpkin seed, and Thomas agrees to take over the job of caring for it while Mr. Pickering is incapacitated with his broken bones. Thomas manages to get a reluctant Rose to help, and pretty soon the whole neighborhood is contributing to the effort in one way or another.

As the summer passes, the pumpkin grows larger, eventually reaching a staggering 1,365 pounds, and they enter it into the Minnesota State Fair. [In the Acknowledgments section, the author writes about the amazing size of these real-life giant pumpkins. As of 2016, one specimen of the Cucurbita maxima species grew to over 2,500 pounds.]

But a serious accident has also taken place, threatening to change Rose’s life forever.

Discussion: This book broaches on being over-the-top diverse, and features perhaps too many "issues" with which the characters struggle.

Some of the characters, especially the “bad” ones, are a bit too villainous, just as some of the “good” characters seemed unrealistically kind, talented, and helpful. (Or maybe I’m just jaded.). In any event, Rose, the self-absorbed main character, was the most unappealing of the “good” set, which made it hard to be as sympathetic to her as one might otherwise have been.

In addition, I couldn’t help wondering throughout the whole story why Rose and Thomas thought the potential State Fair prize money for the pumpkin would be theirs, rather than Mr. Pickering’s.

Nevertheless, there is a lot to like about this book, and readers will learn a great deal about cellos, Bach, pumpkins, and even Japanese tea ceremonies and art of Kintsugi.

Evaluation: This novel offers a lot to think about, and there is nice tension and pacing regarding several of the plotlines, such as the fraught-with-peril care and growth of the pumpkin. show less

As twins go, Rose and Thomas could not be any different. Thomas is short, happy-go-lucky, fly-by-the-seat-of-his-pants kind of kid. Rose, on the other hand, is tall, intense, highly intelligent, and focused. Her passion is the cello and she practices obsessively hoping to win Bach Cello Suites Contest to study with her idol, Maestro Waldenstein. These opposite twins are 12 and are about to experience a summer which will change their lives forever.

Their next-door neighbor, Mr. Pickering, receives a curiousity from his brother-in-law. A pumpkin seed which has the potential to grow into enormity. Thomas is intrigued and decides to help Mr. Pickering with the seed's nurturing and growth. Rose is only focused on her music. That is, until show more THE accident.

Rose's dream is halted, if not dead. She must regain the use of her hand with therapy and determination. And, while her healing is undergoing its timely due, she begins to help Thomas. It is also a time of reflection and renewal...connecting with friends, neighbors, and family which Rose have let fall by the wayside. Literally, it seems as if it takes a community to nurture the pumpkin patch. Rose now sees much more than a vegetable, it brings to her a form of commeraderie, neighborliness, and fun!

Giant Pumpkin Suite is a sweet story about fulfilling one's dreams, even if those dreams don't take the path you anticipated. Rose and Thomas encounter both serendipitous and orchestrated changes which lead to a fulfillment they never dreamed possible. They connect with a cast of characters, both young and old, who boost them up when things are looking bleak. Everyone has a story...and it is up to them to gather the knowledge gleaned from those life experiences to help them get to where they ought to be going.

Although the 'accident' that spurs all this self-reflection is obviously about to happen, with it foreboding doom (and we're yelling at Rose 'don't do it!"), it is the surprising and gentle way it is dealt with that has the reader relishing the story. Dreams, as we initially hope they would come true, do not always meet our expectations... it is how we handle the outcome that defines our maturity and sense of self.

Thank you to LibraryThing Early Reviewers, Candlewick Press, Jamie Tan, and Melanie Heuiser Hill for this ARC. I give this book 4 1/2 stars. show less

A story of a girl and her twin, and the summer her life almost exploded. She's a dedicated cellist and an injury sidelines her. It also brings her family together as the twins work to pay to repair the instrument damaged in the accident. There are lots of tiny details both from the inside of Rose's head and from the outside of Thomas's (as seen by Rose) that work to make the story seem real and vibrant. And there's great advice for growing a giant pumpkin!

Striking the right chords with steady pacing and an interesting main character, this story was a winner in my book. Carefully establishing the setting of the story and each of the main characters, the story starts off quite slow. I found myself wondering when it would pick up after some time. At 448 pages, there really isn’t a lot that your left wondering about when it comes to the story or the characters at the end. The storytelling is good. It is obvious that the author did her research on growing giant pumpkins and Bach, but I found myself lost a bit in the process. The plot seemed to be Rose’s realization of who she is. Focusing on the very musically talented and mathematically gifted Rose, the reader sees her grow over the show more course of a summer from a disciplined cellist to a pumpkin grower by way of an unfortunate accident that damages her ever so delicate fingers she uses to play. As the story moves forward, Rose’s musical gift is challenged by this incident, which causes her to “lose the music”. Before and during her internal struggle, she finds solace in being able to finally be a kid. Another of Rose’s issues is dealing with her self-image. Throughout the story, Rose is so self-conscience about her height being much taller than her fraternal twin brother and tries to do what she can to hide it. She is challenged with learning that there’s nothing wrong with being different (or tall). She also learns that being damaged can add beauty. When given Mrs. Kiyo’s bowl, which is damaged but still valuable, she treasures it and looks to it for inspiration. The use of the pumpkin and Bach mirroring Rose’s view of herself was important to the story. Growing the pumpkin took Rose out of her usual comfort zone. The pumpkin also helped Rose determine what was most important to her and once that happened, her music came back. The characters in the story were memorable and interesting and each played a role in Rose's self-discovery. The primary characters in the story are Rose, the main character, her brother Thomas, her mother and grandmother, Mr. Pickering, their neighbor, Jane, Jesse and James, sibling neighbors, Mrs. Lukashenko, the librarian, Mrs. Holling, Rose’s cello instructor, and Mrs. Kiyo, another neighbor, among others. The relationship between Rose and Thomas, her brother, is forefront. They are both twins but are so unlike twins that most think she is the oldest child. This causes she and Thomas to not have much in common. This relationship is well explained and I felt the characters and their experiences were believable and satisfying. The character dynamic between Rose and Mr. Pickering is also well developed, as they have a close relationship with their neighbor in the story and work with him to grow the giant pumpkin. Jane’s relationship with Rose evolved from one of tolerance and disdain to friendship after Rose’s accident. Having been one of Rose’s sticking points, this was a welcome experience to see them become friends finally. Jesse and James’ characters were a bit of a mystery for me. Other than pining for Rose here and there and lending their helping hands toward the end of the story, their sole purpose only seemed to be for the ending at the Great Minnesota Get -Together. Mrs. Lukashenko’s part in the story was a nice touch. Their deep involvement in the library was lovely and was reinforced with their close relationship to their librarian. Probably should be expected since the main characters live on Library Lane. I especially love how she manages their borrowing of Charlotte’s Web in the story. Mrs. Holling, Rose’s cello instructor, was a very important person in Rose’s life and helped Rose to realize her true talent in music. Mrs. Holling was preparing to leave the US and wanted Rose to get a new instructor and pushed her into preparing for the Bach Cello Suites Competition to study with Harry Waldenstein, leading Rose to push herself toward perfection, a character flaw from the start of the story. Finally, Mrs. Kiyo, a neighbor across the street from Rose, initially assumed to be a private person, gave Rose a prized and likely priceless Japanese bowl that had been in her family for generations. The bowl gave Rose hope and inspiration when she was most vulnerable after having “lost her music”. Other characters played relatively important roles in the story as well and although I haven’t mentioned them here they were well-written and interesting in themselves. Interesting and relatable, this story was a journey in self. From the point of view of Rose Brutigan, an overly tall girl with a strong talent for music and math, her story begins on a high note and ends on an even higher one. With multiple life lessons to be learned, if I had to choose the one I liked most, it would be to love yourself for who you are. In this story, we got to see Rose experience being highly self-conscience, stressed, overly active and utterly rejected. By the end, she becomes accepting of herself after having met other tall women in respectful positions in life. She also becomes much less stressed and learns to relax and be a child. I think this story is important for parents of overly active kids and the dangers they face by feeling the need to always be perfect. Additionally, I feel that kids who feel this way could benefit from a read like this. I like this story because its storytelling seamlessly weaves in Rose’s love of music and math, and pumpkin growing of all things. show less

I loved reading the description of this book. I was very interested in all the things - classical music, a stringed instrument player, a giant pumpkin! How does that not get your attention?! I used to play the violin a VERY long time ago, so I was excited for this book.

The book follows Rose, a twelve year old girl who is very tall for her age and a prodigy cello player. She is training to participate in the Bach Cello Suites Competition when she realizes that she might not get the fellowship that goes along with it and that would be the end of the world for her. Whist all of this is going on her twin brother is helping their neighbor grow a giant pumpkin... this all seems a little detached but it comes together really well. There is a show more great relationship between Rose and her brother Thomas, and they really love each other and support one another throughout the book.

Aside from the great relationship in this book, there is a big twist midway through, an accident that changes everyones plans and so the Giant Pumpkin becomes really important. I loved how 'homey' this book felt as I was reading it. I had ups and downs with the family and other characters and really wanted to see where things were going and the community feel was spot on.

I really enjoyed this book and who doesn't love to read about pumpkins in the autumn months ? It was delightful! show less

Twelve year old Rose loves Bach and pushes herself to perfect her cello performances. She's also a math whiz, she's very sweet, writes herself motivational notes, and she has a twin brother who exclaims things like "great idea!", as twelve year-olds do. I abandoned this book at page 25 and I had to push myself to get there, as I have a really low tolerance for perfect, sweet fictional children, so it wasn't a good match with me.