A review by mrskatiefitz
The Pumpkin War by Cathleen Young

2.0

This middle grade novel started out promising. The writing is strong, and the characters are likable, and I was pleased to note that it was short. (I often lament the absence of strong, slim novels these days as compared with what was published decades ago, and I got my hopes up.) Unfortunately, the plot quickly becomes bogged down by too many storylines. Though the title and cover suggest that the pumpkin race is at the heart of the story, this is just one of several disparate threads running through the book that never seem to come together. There is just so much going on - references to Ojibwe language and culture (which some reviews have identified as inaccurate), the arrival of a mysterious estranged Irish grandfather, a feud between protagonist Billie and her best friend Sam, beekeeping, pumpkin growing, and more. Far from being the compact and focused novel I was hoping for, this book would have needed to be twice as long to even begin to properly handle everything it tried to take on.