The Third Mushroom

by Jennifer L. Holm

[readingwithwrin]

Thank you to Penguin Kids for sending me a physical copy in exchange for my honest review.

This was such a fun read, that was also packed full of educational tidbits that are much needed for everyone.

Ellie is a middle schooler, who has a grandpa (Melvin) who is a scientist and likes to do experiments. Ones of his experiments made him physically look like a teenager again. A pretty cool thing to do, but it also means that now he has to go to school with Ellie and do other teenager things in order to not be suspicious.
While Ellie enjoys this at times, it also makes things very difficult at other times, because Melvin is still her grandpa. Which puts a lot of the family in a weird position, because he knows so much, but they can't allow him to do certain things. He's also extremely messy and has the appetite of a teenage boy which is slowly making Ellie's mom a little annoyed.
We also have Ellie just dealing with regular middle school stuff which was all dealt with in a very real way.

Overall I absolutely loved this book. Ellie is a character that I truly loved, and she was such a real middle school girl. I also loved Melvin even if he was a bit much at times. The things he was feeling were very real, and I love how it showed the loss he felt because of things, while also giving him a life after. I also found it rather fascinating that even though he was a scientist he didn't know certain things until after the fact. It just goes to show that no matter how many degrees you have, that there is always more to learn.
One of my favorite interactions with Ellie and Melvin was how he encouraged her to really do research about the science fair project that they ended up working on together, but to also keep her friendships going and make sure she was there for her best friend no matter what.

There are so many good things in this book, and I think it will be a great read for any middle schooler who likes science but also wants realistic characters.

As someone who hadn't read the first book, I was a little nervous to start this one. I am pleased to say that while I'm sure it builds on the first story, it is not a have to read before you start this one.