Pumpkin Hill

When a plump pumpkin rolls down hill in this seasonal picture-book, smashing and dispersing its seeds, that particularly steep slope becomes a prolific pumpkin patch. Each year the farmer and his wife argue about what to plant, and each year the pumpkins sprout, and grow more abundant. Then one day the pumpkins all begin to roll down hill toward the nearby town, starting a pumpkin avalanche no one will ever forget...

After enjoying Elizabeth Spurr's Halloween Sky Ride, I felt sure I would appreciate Pumpkin Hill, which has a similar autumn setting, and also (at the end) addresses Halloween. Unfortunately, although I did like the story idea - a pumpkin avalanche that must be turned into jack-o-lanterns and pumpkin pies! - and the show more accompanying artwork from Whitney Martin was colorful and humorous, somehow the narrative here just left me indifferent. I didn't care for the way it alternated between rhyming and non rhyming text, and I found it difficult to suspend my disbelief, when it came to the hillside not being planted with a crop for three years, because the farming couple couldn't agree. Tastes vary of course, and there's nothing really wrong here, so picture-book readers in the market for autumnal and/or Halloween stories might want to give this one a look. show less

The story was just ok. My son and I kept wondering, how could the farmer and his wife not notice the giant field of pumpkins? How could the pumpkins flourish so, without ever having been tended to in any way? Though it was SUCH a stretch of an imagination, we enjoyed this book and will definitely check it out again. It's best feature were the colorful illustrations. They are very animated and seem to jump right off the page.
I also like books with recipes and/or activities in the back. This one has both.

I really liked this book. The pictures were humorous. I think this would be a great book for first through fifth graders. When the mayor speaks he uses a few big words that would be good to use as vocabulary words for older children.

Pumpkins grow and overtake the town right before Thanksgiving.

Seeds from a plump pumpkin grew into a huge army of roly-poly pumpkins. All it took was a mighty wind to set those pumpkins off on a tumble that would wakeup a sleepy valley town with a rumbling, tumbling surprise. -- GoodReads

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