By Heather Vogel Frederick
4RBooks: 5/6, grades 4-8
Amazon rating: 5/5, grade level 5-9
Good Reads: 4.12/5
Common Sense Media: not yet reviewed
345 pages
Synopsis:
Truly and her family have been in Pumpkin Falls for a year now and our fully integrated into the community. It’s Fall and there are a number of activities that are keeping everyone busy. The town is getting prepared for the “leaf peepers” coming to see fall foliage. Children and adults are working on their catapults for the pumpkin toss. Truly and her friends are preparing their presentation about Edgar Allan Poe. Aunt True and soon-to-be Uncle Rusty are buying sheep for their new farm. And everyone is preparing for True and Rusty’s wedding.
Then strange things begin to occur. Jack-O-Lanterns across town start disappearing. While True and Rusty are on their honeymoon, Truly and her grandparents move into their farmhouse to care for the sheep and oversee the construction crew renovating the barn. While they are there, strange things begin to happen. Strange noises are heard, someone or something seems to be trespassing on the farm, small pranks seem to be occurring regularly, including the sheep escaping from their pens more than once.
True and her friends, the Pumpkin Falls Private Eyes, decide they need to use their detective skills to solve the cases of the missing pumpkins and haunted farm. With the help of their new friend Emilio, a new student from Italy, they will use logic and their deductive skills to find the culprits and make sure True and Rusty come home to a happily ever after on their new farm.
Parental Guidance: low
Scooter is a mild bully, teasing Truly and others with “nicknames” that
aren’t appreciated.
Someone is trying to force True and Rusty to sell their new farm by pulling pranks
that eventually escalate to letting their sheep out, hanging a mannequin in the barn, and almost setting their home and barn on fire.
Truly has two different young men showing an interest in her.
A group of 1st graders innocently commit a crime, and an older brother takes the
blame.
Recommendation:
I picked this book up at the oldest bookstore in Maine, Sherman’s in Bar Harbor. I didn’t know at the time that it was the latest in a series of Pumpkin Fall’s Mystery stories. This is book 4, and possibly the final book in the series. If they are as good as this one, I would safely recommend reading the entire series.
This book was fine as a read alone, but I would recommend starting with book one for a better understanding of the characters, setting, and previous plots that are mentioned in this story.
The other three books are:
Absolutely Truly (A Pumpkin Falls Mystery)
Yours Truly (A Pumpkin Falls Mystery)
Really Truly (A Pumpkin Falls Mystery)
While the characters in this book are 8th graders, the story is appropriate for elementary students. The relationship between Truly and her family members is the type we would all hope to have, and her relationships with her friends are admirable. That doesn’t mean they are cliché and corny. They play out very realistically.
The plot centers on one major story line, but there are many subplots and side stories in addition. This would be a good addition to any elementary or middle school library. It would work well as a classroom read, with many opportunities for extension learning and activities.
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