ME AND THE PUMPKIN QUEEN by Marlane Kennedy Accelerated Reader: Level: 4.8. Pts. 4. Take the Quiz! Book Description: Mildred misses her mother. She died when the 11-year-old was only six. But one thing Mildred remembers about her mother is how she loved Circleville, Ohio's pumpkin festival. So Mildred takes up growing pumpkins, big ones—make that huge ones—all in hopes of winning the pumpkin show weigh-off. "I don't think I'm abnormally obsessive," Mildred says as the book opens, but frankly, anyone reading her story might beg to differ. Told in a first-person narrative, this novel offers a step-by-step, detailed explanation of how to grow giant pumpkins. Fortunately, there is more: Mildred's prickly relationship with her aunt; her satisfying bond with her veterinarian father (a rather graphic description of a calve's birthing is included); and a little about her friendship with other kids. But, mostly, this is about growing pumpkins. Interestingly, even readers with no particular interest in the topic are likely to be drawn in by Kennedy's straightforward narrative, as solid and unadorned as a pumpkin, yet lovely in its own way.