Where the Watermelons Grow – A Review

The illness doesn't vanish. But everything about how you live with it changes. That, stripped to its essence, is what Where the Watermelons Grow (HarperCollins Italia, 2020, translated by Giulia Bertoldo) offers its young readers—and the adults who pick it up would be wise to do the same. Because this story—sharp and intricate, tender and never sentimental—of nearly thirteen-year-old Della contending with her mother's schizophrenia forces us to think hard about what mental illness does to a child and her entire family. About the difficulty of asking questions. Of seeking help. Of breaking through the shame that mental illness carries with it. In small steps, stumbling and getting up, failing and trying again, the nearly thirteen-year-old (like the adults around her) comes to see that feeling different is not the burden of the few. The schizophrenia is there. But so is her mother—the woman, not the disease. A true and heartening book.