Pumpkin 
by Julie Murphy 
High School    Balzer + Bray/HarperCollins    336 pp.    g 
5/21    978-0-06-288045-1    $17.99 
e-book ed.  978-0-06-288047-5    $11.99 

Waylon Brewer does not fit in at Clover City High School. He’s fat; he’s gay; and he loves drag, particularly a drag-competition TV show called Fiercest of Them All. But no one, not even his twin sister, Clementine, knows that he wants to actually perform in drag: that is, until his audition video for the show, starring “Miss Pumpkin Patch,” is accidentally posted publicly on Facebook. It goes viral, naturally, earning Waylon immediate mockery at school and a nomination to prom court — as queen. Along with Clementine’s girlfriend, a similarly gender-bending candidate for king, Waylon embraces the joke and campaigns to win the crown; it doesn’t hurt that his cute classmate Tucker is a fellow nominee (for king). This third story set in Clover City, Texas, features a genuine and unbreakable sibling bond; a strong romantic connection; and a cast of well-developed supporting characters, including guest appearances from Willowdean (Dumplin’, rev. 11/15) and Callie and Millie (Puddin’, rev. 5/18). Like those protagonists, Waylon learns to love who he is and refuses to settle for anyone who doesn’t. Or as he tells Tucker: “I’m done being with people who are embarrassed by me…I’m too good to keep secret.” It’s easy to cheer for Waylon — who eventually triumphs both as himself and as Pumpkin — in this celebration of individuality and self-expression.

From the July/August 2021 issue of The Horn Book Magazine.