The Third Mushroom by Jennifer Holm

The Third Mushroom is the sequel to The Fourteenth Goldfish, and continues the story of Ellie and her grandfather Dr. Melvin Sagarsky. In the first novel, Ellie's seventy-seven-year-old grandfather had discovered a way to reverse the aging process, turning himself into a thirteen-year-old teenager. Unable to continue working at his lab, he lands at the home of his granddaughter Ellie, who lives with her divorced mother, a drama teacher. For the past year Melvin has been travelling via bus, across the country. However, one day after school, Ellie comes home to find a stranger in their house. Not knowing who is in the house, she calls 911. That stranger turns out to be her grandfather who has unexpectedly returned home.

Melvin, now fourteen, is his usual cantankerous, belligerent self, a typical teenage boy eating enormous quantities of food and producing large amounts of smelly, dirty laundry. While Melvin is much the same, things have changed in Ellie's life. In the past year, Ellie's mother has remarried to Ben, a video game designer. He doesn't know that Melvin is actually Ellie's grandfather. Instead, he's been told Melvin is her nephew. Melvin's sudden re-appearance isn't a problem as Ben is away on a trip to India.

With his return, Melvin must register to attend school, a prospect that he's not happy about, especially after he's placed back into the eighth grade. Depressed about his situation and missing his old lab from which he was forcibly removed when he grew younger, Ellie suggests that maybe they should work together on her science project. Working on the science project means Melvin will have the opportunity to work in the school's new refurbished lab, something that thrills him.

Retrieving Melvin's "specimen" from their home freezer, Ellie and Melvin take it to lab to examine. They discover it is not a jellyfish. Melvin tells Ellie that the specimen an axolatl, a salamander that has gills and lives underwater. Melvin tells her that the axolatl has the ability to regenerate missing body parts. Their axolatl is unusual in that it has six legs instead of the usual four.

Melvin is not sure why their axolatl has six legs; this could be due to genetic variation or the influence of the environment. Ellie suggests that their science project might be to determine if the extra legs are due to environmental variation by using the axolotl as food. Melvin agrees that this is a good idea for their experiment, so they purchase fruit flies from the pet store and mix their own fruit fly media to breed them.

As Ellie and her grandfather work on their experiment, they must both contend with unexpected events in their lives, take chances and cope with loss.

Discussion

The Third Mushroom is a delightful sequel, continuing all the charm of The Fourteenth Goldfish while serving up a mixture of equally funny and sad moments. Holm continues to capture Melvin's sarcastic wit, along with Ellie's realistic middle-grade wisdom.

Axolatl

The Third Mushroom tackles several different themes including death and the grieving process, aging and the meaning of friendship. In this novel, Ellie learns about how her grandmother's death from pancreatic cancer deeply affected her grandfather. Melvin tells her in response to her question as to why he never dated again, "...I was destroyed when your grandmother died. You can't imagine what it was like to watch her waste away from the cancer. Two PhDs and a lifetime dedicated to science and I still couldn't stop a few malignant cells! I would have done anything to save her..." Eventually when Melvin begins to age again, he reconsiders after Ellie points out that perhaps the woman he's interested in - the school librarian,  might be a rare chance in life.

Ellie too must come to terms with her own loss, that of her beloved cat Jonas who dies after being hit by a car. As Ellie and her grandfather consider treating Jonas with the axolotl, Ellie must consider whether treating him is the right thing to do. "Should we try -- and maybe cause Jonas pain -- in the hope that he'll live? Or do we just let Jonas live out his last days and then let him die? I suddenly understand better what my grandfather and mother went through with my grandmother, because these are impossible choices..."

Holm, the daughter of two medical professionals, manages to incorporate many science facts into her story in a way that fits with the storyline line and makes her novel more interesting, especially to young readers with an interest in science. Through the character of Melvin Sagarsky, Holm is able to inform her readers about several scientists who made groundbreaking discoveries, how the scientific method is important, and how critical thinking in science can be applied to her everyday life. For example, readers will learn about several famous scientists and their discoveries: Sir Alexander Fleming who discovered penicillin, William and Caroline  Herschel, brother and sister astronomers who respectively discovered comets and made telescopes, James Carroll and Jesse Lazear who confirmed that yellow fever was spread by mosquitoes and Antoine van Leeuwenhoek, who developed the first usable microscope.

Ellie is impatient for their experiment to show results, but Melvin explains that this isn't the way science works. Melvin asks Ellie to consider what her hypothesis is for the experiment, and what their data shows to date. "The point of having a hypothesis is not to be right. It's about the data. Sometimes the data takes you in a direction you never imagined, and you have an interesting result." Melvin explains that "Good scientists learn from their data."   

Melvin even applies the scientific method to Ellie's life. In Ellie's life, her best friend Raj, who is tall and goth, asks her out on a date. Although they are best friends, Ellie has never considered Raj in this way, but when she goes to watch him at a chess tournament, she sees Raj in a different way. "He's focused and confident. He seems so much more than my potato chip-sharing friend. I remember what my grandfather said about looking at something a thousand times and then one day seeing something new."

When her date with Raj doesn't work out and their relationship tanks, Melvin encourages Ellie to look at both her hypothesis ("...we were perfect for each other) and her data (We were great at being friends!) and draw her conclusion. Melvin tells her "But failure is part of experimentation. It's okay to make mistakes....Your experiment failed but you learned something from it."

The title of the novel, The Third Mushroom is a reference to Ellie's third attempt at trying mushrooms which she hates. Ellie first tried mushrooms in ravioli and found they tasted like dirt. Her second experience at a Chinese restaurant they were rubbery and slimy. However, the third time Ellie has mushrooms is in lasagna made with Portobello mushrooms. They taste like chicken to her. From this Ellie learns that it is important to experiment in life a bit, to try new challenges before writing something off completely.

The Third Mushroom is a wonderful conclusion to the story of Ellie and her eccentric scientist-grandfather. The novel ends on an upbeat tone, Melvin is aging again and has moved out to live his own life, Ellie has a new cat, her relationship with her best friend Raj is restored, and she's working on becoming friends again with Brianna. This novel is well-written, funny, and offers young readers plenty to think about without getting too heavy.

Holm includes an Author's Note, Recommended Resources for Continuing the Conversation which lists some resources to explore famous scientists, and Mellie's Gallery of Scientists which feature short bios of the scientists mentioned in the novel. 

Book Details:

The Third Mushroom by Jennifer Holm
New York: Random House LLC     2018
217 pp.