Our featured October Books this year are all about pumpkins, a useful and interesting edible member of the squash and gourd family. Some are about planting them, and how they really grow and some are adventures that have pumpkins as important parts of the plot.
Pumpkin Circle; The Story of a Garden story by George Levinson, Photogrraphy by Shmuel Thaler, Tricycle Press, Berkeley, CA 1999
Rhyming text and color photographs follows the progress of a pumpkin patch through the year from seeds to plants to pumkins to jack-o-lanterns and back again. A related web site is the Pumpkin Circle Website and there is a video with time lapse photography too.
Pumpkin Decorating, by Vicki Rhodes, Sterling Publishing Company, Inc., New York, NY 1997
This is the ultimate guide to decorating pumpkins, with photos and detailed directions for 80 different projects for both Thanksgiving and Halloween.
Jeb Scarecrow's Pumpkin Patch, by Jana Dillon, Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston, MA 1992
Jeb the Scarecrow had a hard job keeping the crows from eating the plants in his pumpkin patch, but he finally comes up with a wonderful plan that works.
Pumpkin Soup, by Helen Cooper, Farrar Straus Giroux, New York, NY, 1998
The Cat and the Squirrel come to blows with the Duck, arguing about who will stir it while making their pumpkin soup, but they all learn that sharing is what really makes the pumpkin soup taste so good.
The Pumpkin Book, by Gail Gibbons, Holiday House, New York, NY,1999
This book describes the various sizes and shapes of pumpkins, how they grow, their uses and traditions.
Big Pumpkin, by Erica Silverman, illustrated by S. D. Schindler, Macmillan Publishing Company, New York, NY, 1992
A witch finds that she needs the cooperation of several other spooky characters in order to get her big pumpkin home to make pie on halloween.
The Great Pumpkin Switch by Megan McDonald, pictures by Ted Lewin, Orchard Books, New York, NY 1992
Grampa, tells the story to his grandchildren, of how he and a friend accidentally ruined the pumpkin that his sister had been growing all summer and how they manged to find a replacement before she found out. The illustrations show scenes of small town life from the 1920s or early 1930s when horse-drawn wagons shared the roads with Model Ts.
Pinky and Rex and the Perfect Pumpkin, by James Howe, illustrated by Melissa Sweet, Atheneum Books for Young Readers, New York, NY, 1998
When Rex accompanies Pinky and his relatives on their traditional trip to pick out a pumpkin to carve for Halloween, she feels left out because of the jealous behavior of Pinky's cousin Abby. This is a Junior Library Guild selection from a series of books about Pinky and Rex.
The Pumpkin Patch story and photographs by Elizabeth King, Dutton Children's Books, New York, NY,1989
The sharp photographs and story are of a real working pumpkin farm and real farmers, as well as of the various stages of growth of pumpkins.
Pumpkin (Watch it Grow) by Barry Watts, Smart Apple Media, North Mankato, MN 2003
A simple introduction to the life cycle of how a pumpkin grows from seed to fruit.
Too Many Pumpkins by Linda White, illustrated by Megan Lloyd, Holiday House, New York, NY, 1996
An old woman, Rebecca Estelle, who has hated pumpkins ever since she was a girl and her family had to eat them because they had nothing else, finds that she has a big crop of them that were planted in her yard accidentally, so she has to find a way to use them.
These are links to all our other Estabrook Library book lists.
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This page created by David L. Kaufman, Webmaster. Updated 2/12/08