WHERE THE WATERMELONS GROW

The Thing About Jellyfish meets A Snicker of Magic in this contemporary middle grade novel, with hints of magical realism.

As the start of a long, sticky summer unfolds in Maryville, North Carolina, twelve-year-old Della Kelly is feeling good. Medication has long chased away the symptoms of her Mama's schizophrenia, and Della is focused on picking butterbeans on Daddy's farm, swimming in the bay with her best friend Arden, and watching over Mylie, her handful of a baby sister. But that all changes one night when Della finds Mama at the kitchen table, obsessively cutting the seeds out of one of Daddy's sweet watermelons for fear that they will make her daughters sick. Instantly, memories come rushing back to Della from the time before her mother started the medication, when an ambulance took her away to a hospital for three months.

With Mama's paranoia worsening, Della determines to do whatever it takes to help cure her mom for good, even if it means keeping secrets from those who want to help from Arden, who has known Della since the day they were born, to Miss Lorena, a new neighbor who sees a fellow reader in Della. But Della fears that sharing her worries will get Mama taken away again. Taking matters into her own hands, Della goes to the eccentric Bee Lady, whose magical honey is known to cure everything from injured legs to broken hearts.

But the Bee Lady knows Mama's sickness is not something a person can fix, and the jar of honey she gives Della is not for Mama's brain it is for Della's heart. At first, Della does not understand. But when Mama ends up in the hospital again, her friends show her that even without healing there can be happiness. With their love and a finger-full of watermelon honey for her own self maybe Della can finally accept her mama as she is, sickness and all.

Cindy Baldwin is a children's book writer and poet. She grew up in North Carolina and still misses the humidity and warm accents on a daily basis. Currently, she lives in Portland, Oregon with her husband and daughter, where she is growing to love the misty winters and wild blackerries. Where the Watermelons Grow is her debut novel.