Where the Watermelons Grow

Name: Where the Watermelons Grow
Brand: Recorded Books
Availability: InStock
Author: Cindy Baldwin
ISBN: 9781980017127

Author: Cindy Baldwin

Narrator: Sisi Aisha Johnson

Unabridged: 5 hr 18 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Recorded Books

Published: 07/27/2018

Categories: Children's Fiction, Children's Lifestyles, Children's Social Themes

Synopsis

Fans of The Thing About Jellyfish and A Snicker of Magic will be swept away by Cindy Baldwin's debut middle grade about a girl coming to terms with her mother's mental illness. When twelve-year-old Della Kelly finds her mother furiously digging black seeds from a watermelon in the middle of the night and talking to people who aren't there, Della worries that it's happening again-that the sickness that put her mama in the hospital four years ago is back. That her mama is going to be hospitalized for months like she was last time. With her daddy struggling to save the farm and her mama in denial about what's happening, it's up to Della to heal her mama for good. And she knows just how she'll do it: with a jar of the Bee Lady's magic honey, which has mended the wounds and woes of Maryville, North Carolina, for generations. But when the Bee Lady says that the solution might have less to do with fixing Mama's brain and more to do with healing her own heart, Della must learn that love means accepting her mama just as she is.

About Cindy Baldwin

Cindy Baldwin is the award-winning author of Where the Watermelons Grow, Beginners Welcome, and The Stars of Whistling Ridge. She is a disabled activist, cofounder of Middle Grade at Heart, and We Need Diverse Books mentor. She lives just outside Portland, Oregon, with her husband and daughter. To learn more about Cindy, visit cindybaldwinbooks.com.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Amanda

I had the pleasure of reading this book before it got a book deal. It is gorgeous. The words will floor you. They are lyrical and beautiful and packed full of emotion. The feelings are raw and real. An important book. Loved it.......more

Goodreads review by Megan C.

What an amazing middle grade read! Told in a strong southern voice, this story follows 12-year-old Della through the most difficult summer of her life. Her mother is battling paranoid schizophrenia, her family farm is in trouble, and she's left to hold the family together. I thought this book did a......more

Goodreads review by Leigh

I'm lucky enough to have read this one already and I can't say enough great things about this story. I read it in one sitting, because I couldn't put it down. It delivered on all the beautiful feels and Della's story stays with you long after you set the book down. It's a perfect bittersweet balance......more

Goodreads review by Emily

This was a very difficult book for me to read because I have a mother who suffers from mental illness. So of course I personalized everything. All the memories that I had carefully buried and had tried to move past resurfaced and it felt like I was reading with a brick in my stomach. That said, I am......more