Tim Preston

It's October 31st - Halloween night! - and the trick-or-treaters are out in force in this graphically striking picture-book from British author/illustrator team Tim Preston and Simon Bartram. When midnight comes, and the humans are in bed, the jack-o-lanterns take flight, joining witches, ghosts and other spooky creatures in a vast procession under a pumpkin moon. Spotted by a few people, this unusual occurrence prompts headlines the next day...

Preston's text in Pumpkin Moon is minimal - show more just enough to describe what is going on - leaving most of the attention on Bartram's eye-popping illustrations. The cover of my edition really doesn't do justice to the interior artwork, which is so much more vibrantly colorful and surreal than the fairly sedate image on the outside of the book. The cover image on the paperback edition gives a much better impression of the contents within, and the spooky beauty of these visuals. I see that a number of other reviewers didn't care for the artwork, finding the human figures, in particular, creepy. For my part, I thought the illustrations were the best thing here, elevating a mostly humdrum narrative to something truly spooky and magical. Recommended to picture-book readers looking for fun Halloween reads with a bold visual style. show less

The Scarecrow is ugly, no doubt about it! Arms extended, steele teeth, elongated carrot nose, he is a site that does indeed scare. He is so scary that the wildlife seeking food in the field where the scarecrow is placed stay away for fear he might attack them. He is lonely and has no company. Day after day, night after night, is is alone and very lonely.

When a winter blizzard occurs that covers him in thick snow, suddenly, he becomes interesting to the wildlife and not an aboration to be show more afraid of. Frolicking over the snowy crow, the squirrels, birds, rabbits and fox enjoy their play time with him.

Then, when the snow is gone, they no longer are afraid of the crow. Rather, they enjoy him, and of course, he is thereafter a happy scarecrow.

This is a beautifully illustrated book with raised texture in places on the page. No doubt, a small child will be fascinated by the scarecrow nobody loved, but eventually became a thing of beauty. show less

In my opinion this book was a great introduction into to fall season with also re-enforcing inclusion trough the scarecrow growing to have friends throughout the season. I would recommend this book from pre-school to young elementary school age because I feel it teaches a good lesson to the young age group. As the Winter approaches the scarecrow becomes a snowman and the animals on the farm come up to him and all become friends. Then, when the snow melts the animals come to find out that the show more snowman is in fact the scarecrow and they all become friends knowing now that the scarecrow is not scary. I would say that the big idea in this picture book would be to not judge a person on how they might seem or are assumed to be, instead make your own judgment and conclusions on how you feel about a person. I like how it taught students to think out of the box on whether a scarecrow is actually scary or not. The reason why I did not give this book a higher rating was because I think the author could have uses a little bit of better figurative language on describing what the seasons were changing into. For example, if the author would have tapped into the readers senses and described what fall smelled like, sounded like, or felts like. Although, over-all I liked reading this book and it got me prepared for Fall and Winter to come. show less

A kindly scarecrow wants to be friends with the birds and animals that play at the edge of his wheat field, but they are afraid of him because of his clothing and "his beady eyes, his crooked nose, and his jagged metal mouth." When winter arrives, one night the snow falls and turns the scarecrow into a jolly snowman. The animals play with him, and he is happy now. But worries that when the snow melts, he will be alone again. Will his friends still like him when they see that he is really a show more scarecrow? show less