If I had known. Famous last words. My child seems to think that you can plant any seed and it will grow into a plant. So she has been planting tomato seeds from her salad tomatoes, cucumber seeds, sunflower seeds, apple seeds, cantaloupe seeds, even some lima beans expecting them to sprout and grow any time. I tell her we should plant seeds from the little packages and we did, but she still expects those other seeds to grow as well.
This book is all about a boy’s pumpkin that he carved for Halloween in “Pumpkin Jack” children’s book. He liked the pumpkin so much that he named him Jack. His mom made him put Jack the pumpkin outside as he was beginning to decay. The boy was sad and would go out and see Jack every so often. The pumpkin looked different each time the boy saw it. Almost as if the top of the pumpkin was sinking. Mold started growing on Jack. Then the snow came and the boy forgot about it. When he did remember after the snow went away, the pumpkin was barely there. A few rotten pieces and that was it. He covered up the last of the pumpkin with earth. During the springtime, the boy noticed something happening in that spot though.
A sprout. The boy knew what was happening! A plant was growing so he started watering it. Eventually, the plant had long vines and grew more. We see the boy in the picture looking at large yellow flowers on the plant. One day the boy notices small green balls! These green pumpkins grew and grew until August when there was a chill in the air. The boy took all of the pumpkins off the vine and put them on the porch, hoping the green color would turn. By Halloween, all of them had turned orange. The boy gave all the excess pumpkins to his friends. Again, he made a face on his pumpkin and called it Jack from jack-o’-lantern: to seed–to pumpkin again.
As I said, if I had only known, this would not have been a book I let my daughter see at this time. Because you know, now she is even more intent that any seed will grow. Of course, her parent does not know anything!! The book “Pumpkin Jack” says so, after all! This is a great book for any time, not just for Halloween and fall. A perfect spring planting season book as well! The unusual premise will draw kids in and teach them something. At first my daughter was scared, then a little worried, but as soon as the gross part started (mushy, decaying pumpkin), she was good. Many of the illustrations are close-up pumpkin pictures so we see exactly what is happening to the old pumpkin. The pumpkin is the main character of this book! Every other page has a paragraph of text. I would recommend for any age over 4.
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