I was drawn in by the cover but sadly dnf'd pretty early on as I just couldn't connect with the writing and struggled to suspend disbelief that I was reading about children as they sounded a lot more grown up than they should've which was off putting

Was interesting and well written. I read parts to my niece and she absolutely loved it, she was engaged with the story line and wanted to hear more each time.
This is a delayed review as was read earlier on in the year.

Adorable Halloween children’s’ book that teaches virtues in a cute/scary way. Full of adventure and imagination! I highly recommend this book and author to those with middle schoolers and younger.

I love the premise. The execution left much to be desired. The dialogue was repetitive and I was very confused with the ages of the kids? Like her parents are teachers but she was an hour late for school? And the friend wanting to skip class. Where ade they going? Again, very confused. 3 stars neutral because I DNF'd

This is a decent middle grade book better suited to 10 years and up as parts could scare some younger readers but as most of us know children differ greatly, it is a light Halloween read I did feel it lacked detail.in places where more information would have really helped the story to move a little smoother, at times I found the main character whiny and annoying at times as well as feeling like she was more of a characture than a character but this could also be because at least to me she came across as trying to be that edgy one who different but in an obnoxious way.
The story could do with being better flushed out to get the most out of the story and characters but overall not a bad read.

I received this ARC from NetGalley. Thank you for the early read.

This book was a 3-star for me. It was cute but not a lot that I enjoyed. The writing was very repetitive and dodgy. There were a lot of pieces that didn't seem to fit in the book. When you did get to a part that you would assume to be exciting you were left shortly disappointed because they were not entirely what you thought they would be, Honestly, this book caught my eye because of the cover and title and that's why I wanted to read it. I would recommend this book to all YA readers. I feel this would be right up their alley.

Unfortunately I have to agree with the many other reviews and say that I just didn't enjoy this book. It was bland, and definitely not what I was expecting.
I won't be recommending this book.

I was so excited for this book, but found that the voice and dialogue just didn't work for me--none of the children sounded like actual kids (at least, not modern ones), and even the adults felt kind of distant because of their speech, and I just couldn't get into it.

Not what I expected at all unfortunately. My rating reflects my personal enjoyment of the book rather than its quality. Review not posted anywhere else.

2.5 ⭐

Unfortunately, this wasn't the greatest read. The premise was amazing and the setting was perfectly autumnal. The cover - beautiful! But the writing left a lot to be desired.

What bothered me the most was how repetitive it was. The narration dragged the story out. When we finally got to the good parts, they didn't seem all that exciting anymore.

The whole thing was also a bit all over the place. It was very hard for me to connect with the story or the characters. Ultimately, the book had all the vibes I was hoping for, but I barely got to the end because I just didn't care.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an ARC of The House on The Pumpkin Farm by Sarah Shadi in exchange for an honest review.

Title: The House on the Pumpkin Farm
Written by: Sarah Shadi
Pub Date: 25 Feb 2022
Publisher: Independently Published
Genre: Middle Grade | Parenting & Families


Unfortunately, I can;t say much about this book as I DNF'ed it after only 20 pages. It starts off whiny and trivial .Which were o the only problems with in 20 pages. Thought the narrate/main character comes off as very young her narration is littered with words a young child probably wouldn't use., like "enthused." For me this too away believably in the book.

I just didn't care what as going on with lily. She also seemed to make everything about her. The problem for me is , the cover was so nice I had to request it. The book is just to young for me and I don't think I'll be finishing it.

Thank you so much to NetGalley for providing me with a complimentary digital ARC for The House on the Pumpkin Farm. The honest opinions expressed in this review are my own.

Lily is a regular middle school teen who wants to hang out with her friends and go to parties. She’s disappointed when she’s not invited to Alice’s big Halloween party. She begs her parents to let her visit her two second cousins at their farm so she can have a fun Halloween. All she wants is to have a spooky season.

To her surprise, she discovers the farm to be magical, opening the door to an exciting adventure, but before long, things start to get out of hand and her path is laid with traps.
On her adventure, she encounters a host of characters human and magical, friend and foe, good and evil.

Join Lily in her adventure on the magical pumpkin farm which puts to test courage, kindness, patience, friendship and love.
Will Lily pass these tests to find her way back home?

This was such a fun middle school age book! I thought it would be good for tweens who enjoy spooky stories. I loved the setting was on a farm and it connected to a magical universe. There were themes such as death and afterlife, but I don’t think was really scary.

I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

Sweet story combining warmth of the season and the fantastical element on imagination. Great ready aloud for younger students!

First of all, this cover is absolutely stunning! It was also definitely what grabbed my attention first when I saw this book on NetGalley. After reading what it was about, I applied for an ARC and was incredibly delighted when I was approved. Thanks again to NetGalley for this ARC!

Young teen Lily, a smart but not very popular girl, goes to what she thinks will be a normal Halloween party of her classmate, but ultimately ends up having a great adventure with new friend Tom when she discovers a magical world. Will she be able to get back home safely?

I liked this book enough, but I think it wasn't for me. The House on the Pumpkin Farm moved on really quickly, which is not uncommon for middle grade literature, but for me it didn't work. I just didn't really get into the book as well as I get into other (middle grade) ones. The writing style was not bad, but again, not my style. I do think young teenagers might like this very much. It's the perfect spooky book for people who don't like horror, so I would recommend it to 10-13 year-olds who want to read something Halloween-related, but easily get scared.

I read a lot of middle grade fiction (I volunteer at a Childrens library) and I just couldn’t get into this book. Great concept. It just felt as though some things were edited out and instead of fixing the flow it just made it worse. Also it felt very forced and not the way kids talk.

The author definitely has some great ideas just a little tweaking would have made this better. Also whomever designed the cover art is amazing. That cover grabbed me immediately.

Really good book, my daughter really enjoyed it. She thought it was the perfect choice for her to read in the lead up to Halloween as it had Pumpkin in the title! Lol. She rated it 3.5 stars

That was a cool reading but I didn't really excepting the time travel thing... It's not my type of reading but I pretty sure that is for a lot of people because the writing is pretty good and the story have a lot of action !

a really good book for children and teenager. I absolutely recommend If u wanna approach this genre.

This was a perfect Halloween read to enjoy with your child. My nine year old son and I read it together and enjoyed it very much. It was fun and silly with just enough fall vibes. We would love to try more books by this wonderful middle grade author.
Thank you, Netgalley and the publisher for allowing me an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I received this book in exchange for an honest review, which has not altered my opinion of this book. Thank you to NetGalley and Bowker for the ARC copy.

I really wanted to like this book. The concept is so cute and I love the idea of an adventure taking place on the pumpkin farm and it did start out as that. In fact, I enjoyed the twist of time travel, but unfortunately for me this book missed the mark. I think that it was a bit too chopping of a writing style for me and once things started happening they happened a bit too abruptly. I understand that the whole aspect of middle grade is to suspend your belief because it is what it is and that is how a child's mind works, but this felt more like it was almost written by a child and because of that it just felt too amateur, and not in the fun middle grade reading way.

Now, that being said I want to emphasize that this book had a really solid idea and the concepts and storyline would be super interesting, but I'd rather have a series of adventures following Lily and Tom as they explored the pumpkin farm and what each pumpkin does. I feel like that would have been more captivating rather than jumping to different parts so quickly, especially at the beginning. I never fully connected with any of the characters, even though usually middle grade allows me to just pretend I'm a child for a while, I kept being tossed out of the story.

I do believe with some editing this book could be great and could really draw in a great crowd of middle grade readers, but unfortunately I don't think it's there yet. 2 out of 5 for me.