Pumpkin Fair by Eve Bunting, Eileen Christelow (Illustrator)

From the Publisher

“A bouncy rhyme and delightful artwork bring this pumpkin fair to life. The young narrator is ecstatic to be at the local pumpkin fair, where pumpkins of every size are on display—and that’s not all! There’s pumpkin bowling, a pumpkin pull, and every sort of food you can imagine made from the orange stuff, from ice cream to stew. . . . Christelow’s good-natured watercolor-and-ink illustrations are filled with things to look at and laugh about, including a marching band in pumpkin suits. Keep this book around to read for autumn story hours—but you might want a piece of pumpkin pie when you’re done.”—ALA Booklist

“Christelow’s jubilant illustrations in watercolor and pen and ink add to the general atmosphere of gaiety—everywhere readers look, families are interacting happily and having fun. . . . Halloween is never mentioned, so the book could be used to celebrate the harvest season in general. Of course, it will also serve as a good non-scary Halloween story.”—School Library Journal

Publishers Weekly

"There's even gooey party stew/ (I'll try them all, except the stew./ It's icky-looking, gross, pew-yew!)"Bunting's (Smoky Night) rhymes typically project an authentic voice, and this time the voice belongs to a gangly girl who visits her village's annual Pumpkin Fair. Accompanied by her parents and a sibling dressed in a bunny suit, the girl admires the Pumpkin Princess, enters a pumpkin-seed spitting contest ("Pucker up and let 'em fly!/ Spit 'em far and spit 'em high!") and tastes pumpkin cooked every which way, including the aforementioned stew. Christelow (the Five Little Monkeys series) partners Bunting's text with flavorsome cartoons. Exuding a mild sense of humor and much affection, they capture both the excitement and goofiness of the small-town event. But Bunting has something more important in mind than just a fun outing. Everywhere her heroine goes, she cuddles a pumpkin that she has grown from a seed. It's small and bumpy, she admits, but, "I tell her that it's still OK./ She's very special in her way." Her steadfast affection is rewarded at the end, when she wins the prize for "best-loved pumpkin at the fair/ The best-loved pumpkin anywhere!" This lightly proffered moral, along with Bunting's effortlessly idiomatic verse, makes for a sweet seasonal tale. Ages 3-6. (Aug.)

"Christelow's jubilant illustrations in watercolor and pen and ink add to the general atmosphere of gaiety--everywhere readers look, families are interacting happily and having fun. . . . A good non-scary Halloween story."

School Library Journal

PreS-Gr 2This story in rhyme celebrates a small town's "Pumpkin Fair," complete with a Pumpkin Princess and Peter Pumpkin Band. Everyone comes to carve pumpkins; bowl pumpkins; spit pumpkin seeds; juggle pumpkins; make pumpkin creatures; and eat pumpkin stew, cake, pie, ice cream, and cookies. The young narrator brings her very own pet pumpkin to the festivities and winds up with two ribbons for the "best-loved pumpkin at the fair. The best-loved pumpkin anywhere!" Christelow's jubilant illustrations in watercolor and pen and ink add to the general atmosphere of gaietyeverywhere readers look, families are interacting happily and having fun. According to a sign, it is October 28th, and many of the children in the pictures are wearing costumes, but Halloween is never mentioned, so the book could be used to celebrate the harvest season in general. Of course, it will also serve as a good non-scary Halloween story.Judith Constantinides, East Baton Rouge Parish Main Library, LA

Kirkus Reviews

The reason for this determinedly jolly book seems to be to provide educators with a fall title that invokes autumn harvest themes and even jack-o'-lanterns—yet it never mentions Halloween. It's a bland book from Bunting (I Am the Mummy Heb- Nefert, p. 550, etc.), without her usual bite and wit: "I'm going to the Pumpkin Fair./Pumpkins, pumpkins everywhere!/`These ones here were grown from seed—/Yes sir, yes sir, yes indeed!' " The girl who narrates and her family attend a quaint, small-town festival, where there is pumpkin-bowling, pumpkin- basketball, pumpkin-carving, seed-spitting, decoration, food, and her prize for "best-loved pumpkin anywhere." It's a family day, with children and pets everywhere and a band dressed as pumpkins. Bunting has done just about everything she can to celebrate the pumpkin, but why? Christelow valiantly trudges along, mustering as many pumpkin-related scenes as she can and stuffing them with comic characters and events, but even she begins to flag near the end.

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