Rhyming text and photographs follow a pumpkin patch as it grows and changes, from seeds to plants to pumpkins ready to harvest, to jack-o-lanterns and then to seeds again - (Baker & Taylor)
We can be sure of this: It's a circle without end. It'¬?s pumpkin seeds to pumpkins To pumpkin seeds again! This treat of a picture book comes cloaked in the colors of fall. Bouncy verse and glowing photographs show a backyard pumpkin patch move through its natural cycle -- a bug'¬?s eye and a bird's high view of seeds sprouting, flowers blooming, bees buzzing, pumpkins growing . . .and then going back to earth. An author's note explains how to grow your own pumpkin. Educators, please visit our Resources section, above, for teaching guides and curricula. Awards1999 Parent'¬?s Guide AwardReviews"If you weren't a pumpkin lover before, you will be after checking this neat book out." -Fast Forward magazine "Eye-catching full-color photography and rhyming text. . . . An excellent choice for fall pumpkin studies."-Public Schools of North Carolina's Infotech"Your books will help us put an emphasis on early reading and help improve the stereotypes and misconceptions surrounding farmers and agriculture."-American Farm Bureau Foundation for Agriculture - (Random House, Inc.)
SHMUEL THALER lives in Santa Cruz, California.
Bread lover GEORGE LEVENSON's films, which include the widely praised Sadako andThe Thousand Paper Cranes, are available in most schools and libraries in North America. This story was inspired by the wheatgrass growing in his backyard in Santa Cruz, California. - (Random House, Inc.)
Booklist Reviews
Ages 4^-8. Based on the videotape Pumpkin Circle, a 1997 Booklist Editor's Choice video selection, this follows the life cycle of a pumpkin from seed to sprout to plant to flower to fruit and back to seed. A few simple lines of rhyming or near-rhyming verse comment on each stage of development; striking color photographs illustrate the text. The many close-ups show every detail of the plants, while wider shots take in the whole garden or even a mountain of pumpkins. Crisp and beautifully composed, the photos are awash in gleaming shades of green as well as glowing gold and orange tones. The last page provides instructions for growing pumpkins. A visually striking book that teachers may want to read aloud. ((Reviewed October 15, 1999)) Copyright 2000 Booklist Reviews
Horn Book Guide Reviews
Glorious color photos steal the show in this book on pumpkins in all their sumptuous rotundity. Each skillfully composed picture lures readers into looking more imaginatively, as well as more knowledgeably, at these vegetables. Levenson's text, adequate as an outline of the life cycle and care of pumpkins, is marred by awkward rhyming; still, the book is worth having for the splendid pictures.Copyright 2000 Horn Book Guide Reviews
Horn Book Magazine Reviews
Glorious color photographs steal the show in this book on pumpkins in all their sumptuous rotundity and diversity. From the opening spread of a mound of giant pumpkins, dwarfing the preschooler nestled in their midst, to a concluding series of shots of a seed-toothed jack-o' lantern gradually subsiding into the regenerative earth, each spread is a visual delight. Orange-gloved hands planting five different-looking seeds that generate as many varieties; an underground view of a seedling's root structure; giant, brilliantly green leaves against an October-blue sky; a close-up of tightly-curled tendrils and another of a deep-throated golden blossom: each skillfully composed picture goes beyond mere instruction to lure readers into looking more imaginatively, as well as more knowledgeably, at these beguiling vegetables. Unfortunately, Levenson's text is marred by awkward rhyming and other self-consciously poetical effects. Such inept phrasing as "Every passing minute awakens each new plant" and odd conceits such as "Clear away lifeless leaves. / Hide the rags of time" are embarrassing at best. Still, the text is adequate as an outline of the life cycle and care of the pumpkin, and the book is definitely worth having for the splendid pictures. j.r.l. Copyright 1999 Horn Book Reviews
Kirkus Reviews
For those who have seen the charming video of the same name, this will be an unhappy example of what happens when one medium is translated into another. Those who come to this without preconceived notions, however, will find glorious full-color photographs that capture pumpkin marvels, from the mountain of golden orange delights with a girl perched on them to the gorgeous close-ups of green sprouts, feathery buds, and full yellow flowers. The singsong text is often clumsy, rhyming ``seeds'' with ``leaves,'' ``hair'' with ``appear,'' and ``vine'' with ``time.'' The fascinating story of the growth of the pumpkin (and the pumpkin patch), from seed to jack-o-lantern, and then back, decaying, into the earth, is more fully conveyed in the pictures. (Picture book. 4-8) Copyright 1999 Kirkus Reviews
School Library Journal Reviews
K-Gr 2-The development of a pumpkin seed into a plant, pumpkin, jack-o'-lantern, and, completing the circle, back to seed again, is the subject of this colorful book. Photos show a child sitting on a huge mound of pumpkins, a magnified view of the inside of the fruit with its pulp and seeds, tendrils of a plant stretching across two pages, a Georgia O'Keeffe-like view into the center of a blossom, and the lighted grin of a beautiful jack-o'-lantern. Unfortunately, the text is written in badly rhyming verse: "One big pumpkin family, five varieties,/each one started from/different pumpkin seeds." Straightforward directions for growing pumpkins appear on the last page. Jeanne Titherington's Pumpkin, Pumpkin (Greenwillow, 1986) is less flashy, more artistic, and more appealing to young listeners.-Carolyn Jenks, First Parish Unitarian Church, Portland, ME Copyright 1999 Cahners Business Information.
