by Moe Zilla

Created on: April 19, 2010

In an old frontier village, a general store displays what may be the first carved pumpkin ever. A little girl named Hattie wants to try carving a pumpkin too, but her father - a farmer - insists on selling their pumpkins. She persists at dinner-time, though her father reminds her that they're already saving one to make pumpkin pies. The story is filled with sweet details of her life on the farm, though it keeps returning to the question of whether Hattie will get to carve a jack-o-lantern after all.

Their breath fogs the air as they walk through the pumpkin field. Hattie rolls the pumpkin into golden piles, leaving behind heaping mounds of "morning-wet pumpkins." There's a wonderful drawing filled with autumn-y yellows and oranges that shows the sprawl of the family's enormous pumpkin patch. The simple watercolors by illustrator Laura Kelly help to give the book a friendly sense of familiarity.

Soon the family welcomes the Pumpkin Man from Piney Creek. He's a mysterious figure, with long brown hair and a brown handlebar moustache, plus a derby made out of beaver skin. "'Tis a great pumpkin day," he says, before he surprises the girl with a magic trick. He pretends to pull a raspberry cream candy out of the little girl's ear. And soon he and the girl's father are inspecting each pile, "wheeling and dealing and talking pumpkins."

It was the first book by author Darleen Bailey Beard, and she definitely delivers a children's story that's full of pumpkins. The Pumpkin Man cuts a pie-shaped wedge from one pumpkin's flesh, then smells it, tastes it, and holds it up to the sun. The Pumpkin Man declares their crop "Best I've found," then offers to buy a lot of 100. Hattie realizes her father had been counting every pumpkin in their pile - and sure enough, when they get the 99th pumpkin into the wagon, they start hunting for the pumpkin she's hidden!

The little girl cries when she offers her hidden pumpkin to the Pumpkin Man - but then he presents her with a surprise. He returns the pumpkin where he'd sliced out the pie-shaped wedge, saying "A pumpkin with a hole is of no use to a peddler." Turn the page, and you're at the book's happy ending, as Hattie is propping her carved jack-o-lantern in the family's window. It's surrounded by orange autumn-y leaves, and it's lit up with a bright yellow smile. "Can you find a use for it?" the pumpkin man had asked her?

"Oh yes!" Hattie had replied...

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