Pumpkin Magic

PreS-Gr 2–On a dark and spooky night, a lonely jack-o-lantern sitting on a porch sprouts arms and legs when it is touched by moonlight. Pumpkin jumps up and marches down the street searching for friends, and certainly finds them; as the moonbeans shine over the field, all the pumpkins turn to lively jack-o-lanterns that party and play for the rest of the night. When morning comes, the original pumpkin leads them all in a parade to town and all the pumpkins settle quietly on stairs and stoops, waiting for the next magical moonlit night. The well-balanced verse scans nicely to the tune of “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star” and the bold, color-saturated illustrations are full of personality. “Stacking pumpkins one by one. Falling pumpkins having fun! Pumpkins round, pumpkins square. Pumpkins in their underwear.” However, there’s little narrative holding the story together from page to page, and some of the pumpkin’s activities make more sense than others.