Characteristic moments are important because they provide immediate proof of the worth of your characters.
K.M. Weiland
Author: Susan Uhlig
Where the Watermelons Grow
Marvelous Middle Grade Monday
Where the Watermelons Grow (Harper, 2018) by Cindy Baldwin is such a heartbreaking story, yet filled with hope.
Twelve-year-old Della Kelly’s mama is doing strange things again. Is the sickness that got her hospitalized four years ago back? Della decides she’s going to do everything she can to help her mama get better. But will it be enough?
This was author Cindy Baldwin’s debut–an amazing debut. Since then she’s published three other books. I recommended her Beginner’s Welcome here. See all of her books here and read about Cindy here. You can also read a couple of her short stories here.
I love what Cindy says about the book: “With Where the Watermelons Grow, the story idea arose out of two inspirations: The first was when I was singing the song ‘Down By the Bay‘ to my baby and started wondering what could be the story behind the song. The second was my desire to write a story about a disability that does not end with a magical cure. Although I don’t have schizophrenia, I’m a disabled parent myself, and many of the experiences of the Kelly family were inspired by things my own family went through.”
This novel was a Washington Post KidsPost Summer Book Club Selection, an Indies Introduce and Indie Next title, a Bank Street Best Book of 2019, an AudioFile Earphones Award Winner, and an Oregon Spirit Book Award Honor book.
I think ideas buzz about in the air like tiny mosquitoes. Many ‘land’ on you and get brushed aside. But it’s the ones that take a ‘bite’ out of you, the ones that really get into your blood that make you the most passionate about writing.
Dian Curtis Regan
I think ideas buzz
The Remarkable Journey of Coyote Sunrise
Marvelous Middle Grade Monday
The Remarkable Journey of Coyote Sunrise (Henry Holt and Company, 2019) by Dan Gemeinhart was so good! The voice of 12-year-old Coyote is so real. I also love the mysteries that are revealed as I read and all the characters I met along the way.
Coyote lives in a converted school bus with Rodeo, her dad. “But don’t tell him that, okay?” she tells the brothers giving away kittens. She is tired of all the aloneness and secretly adopts the quietest kitten and names him Ivan. At the end of chapter one, Coyote says, “I had a kitten. Which definitely meant I had a problem. But, heck, I already had problems. And now I also had Ivan. And that sure seemed like an improvement either way.”
Don’t you want to know more?!
Dan is the author of six books (so far!). Read the book titles here. Read more about him here.
This book was a 2020 ILA Teachers’ Choice, 2019 Parents’ Choice Award Gold Medal Winner, Winner of the 2019 CYBILS Award for Middle Grade Fiction, and an Amazon Top 20 Children’s Book of 2019. A sequel, Coyote Lost and Found, is coming out in 2024. Read more about this one and Dan’s other books here.
Truth is stranger than fiction, because fiction has to make sense.
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