An entertaining and refreshing read from start to finish. Rose is a twelve-year-old prodigy who is already in high school and is stresses with her upcoming Bach Cello Suites Competition. However, she still wants to enjoy the things a normal twelve-year-old would and that soon is about to change the day she is given a simple task with her twin brother, Thomas, to complete over the summer: take a pumpkin seed and plant the seed to grow a pumpkin. Rose discovers the importance of family and friendship, and how with enough time and care, these relationships can grow to be stronger and beautiful. I absolutely love Rose's development throughout the book and how the theme of community is so carefully developed for all the characters. I would definitely recommend this book, especially for a math class. Even though music is heavily spoken throughout the book, Rose has a fascination for numbers that can be beneficial to introduce in a middle school math class. ( )

Giant Pumpkin Suite is a wonderful book about a girl, Rose, who is discovering herself and growing out of her childhood. I gave this book a 5 star rating because it's emotional, and there are great themes of family, friends, and the importance of enjoying your childhood. This is a great story for middle school students because they are also going through changes in their life, and its important for them to see a good peer- role model who works through personal and emotional situations that they, themselves may be struggling with. ( )

I received this book through the Librarything.com Early Reviewer giveaway. It is about a young girl, Rose, who is a cello prodigy and math whiz and has a twin brother. She is planning to enter a competition to a scholarship, but her plans are unexpectedly changed. As a result, she helps her brother an neighbor attempt to grow a giant pumpkin. They learn a lot through these events.

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 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.