Too Many Pumpkins [Paperback]

Rebecca Estelle hates pumpkins. "What's not to like?" you may be thinking. Certainly, pumpkins are benign, as far as gourds go, and they make for delicious pies. But if you were forced to eat only pumpkins (baked, steamed, boiled, stewed, mashed, and rotten), you might agree with Rebecca, who was so poor as a child that she could only afford to eat the unrelentingly orange squash.

One day, years and years later, white-haired Rebecca was busy not eating pumpkins when--SPLAT--a giant pumpkin fell off an overloaded truck and smashed into her yard. She buried the mess so she wouldn't have to look at it, and, as you might imagine, she witnessed a bumper crop the following fall. In Too Many Pumpkins, a 1996 American Bookseller "Pick of the Lists," Linda White (who based the book on her own pumpkin-eating aunt Becky) reveals how swallowing one's personal (pumpkin) prejudices can end up benefiting a whole community. Illustrator Megan Lloyd creates spunky, detail-rich drawings that are sure to hold up to the scrutiny of youngsters everywhere. This is an ideal Halloween-time book for those who want to bypass ghouls and goblins (or any actual mention of Halloween) and focus on ... pumpkins! (Ages 4 to 8) --This text refers to the School & Library Binding edition.

Kindergarten-Grade 3-Golden autumn hues cast their warm glow throughout this humorous harvest tale. Rebecca Estelle, having survived on various pumpkin dishes during her poor childhood, hates them so much that when a pumpkin accidentally falls into her yard, she shovels dirt over it so she won't have to see or think about it again. In spite of all her efforts to the contrary, she is "rewarded" with a yard full of bright orange globes the following fall. Not willing to let the windfall go to waste, she once again prepares the dishes she detested as a child, carves jack-o-lanterns from the remaining pile, and then thoroughly enjoys the fellowship of her neighbors lured by the glow of the mischievous carvings. And, of course, Rebecca Estelle saves seeds for next year's planting. Lloyd snuggles White's text into her rich watercolor-and-pen illustrations. Nature's determined bounty spills from formal borders and is tinged with just the right touch of realism to contrast with the cartoonlike Rebecca Estelle and her feline companion. The vocabulary and sentence structure calls for solid independent readers, but the large horizontal format packed with engaging fun makes this title an ideal harvest/Halloween read-aloud.
Claudia Cooper, Ft. Stockton Independent School District, TX
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the School & Library Binding edition.

Ages 4^-7. Rebecca Estelle hates pumpkins. As a poor child, she ate them all the time. The last thing she wants to do is grow them; but a huge pumpkin falls off a truck, spilling its seeds, and the next fall, she has pumpkins. Lots of them. The fun comes in watching this sprightly woman deal with her orange nemesis. She decides she'd better bake, and so she does until her kitchen is packed with pumpkin pies, bread, puddings, muffins--then she has to get the goodies out of her house. She carves the rest of the pumpkins into jack-o'-lanterns that light the way for the neighbors. Soon everything is gone except for a few pumpkin seeds, which Rebecca Estelle decides to plant after all. The story and art brim with life and laughter, just as the kitchen spills over with treats. Rebecca Estelle comes across as very real: cranky, generous, and willing to make the best of a bad situation. An excellent fall read-aloud. Ilene Cooper --This text refers to the School & Library Binding edition.

With countless unwelcome pumpkins to deal with, Rebecca Estelle turns disaster into a celebration.

Megan Lloyd was born on November 5, 1958, to Melissa and John Lloyd in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Her parents were public schoolteachers who graduated from Penn State; John taught American history, and Melissa taught both Music and Kindergarten. Megan herself attended Pennsylvania State University for a year as a pre-law major, before deciding she wanted to illustrate children’s books. She says she was prompted by her mother, who kept showing her picture books that she used in her kindergarten class. The books struck a chord with her, and she fell in love with the idiom of children’s books, because they combined her love of books with visual aspects and the written word. To pursue her new interest, Lloyd transferred to Parsons School of Design in New York City. She graduated from Parsons in 1981 and worked for the next year as assistant to the art editor at Harper & Row in New York City. Her first contract as an illustrator was for the book Chicken Tricks, which prompted her to leave Harper & Row, and move back to Pennsylvania. During her first two contracts she did antique paint restoration as a way to earn a living, but her work was soon able to garner enough interest from readers and publishers to enable her to take it up full time. However, Lloyd’s paint restoration work on the pulpit of an old church in Brickerville, Pennsylvania inspired one of her most important and beloved works—Pioneer Church, by Carolyn Otto. Original art from the book was selected by the Pennsylvania Center for the Book to represent the Commonwealth as part of a two-year touring exhibit that focuses on the uniqueness of each state, as seen through the lens of children’s book art. Megan Lloyd says of her work: “I try to capture the essence of the story and expand on it, and to add things to the story that may not even be there. A well written story will inspire ideas and images, and even subplots in my mind- things the author probably didn’t intend.” This mode of expression is embodied in the lively, playful style of her illustrations, part of what makes her unique and successful as an artist. She is able to read the story and let it trigger images that enable her to draw on her own personal experience. Megan Lloyd usually works on six different books simultaneously—all at different points in the design, creation, and publishing process. In addition to illustrating, she enjoys soap-making, rug hooking, weaving, painting, and caring for her many animals: two dogs, three cats, two guinea hens, eighteen chickens, eighteen sheep, a cow, and a calf. She currently lives in rural Cumberland County, Pennsylvania with her husband Thomas, an antiques dealer and shop owner, and the oft-used model for many of the men in her books.

Linda White is the author of Too Many Pumpkins and Too Many Turkeys. Ms. White lives in Colorado.

An eccentric old lady really hates pumpkins, so you can imagine her dismay when a veritable field grows in her yard. Finding them too heavy to give away, she cooks them into bread. Then she lures the townspeople in. The choice of a male narrator is puzzling because the entire story is from a woman's point of view. The narrator raises his voice to a squeaky pitch when she expresses dismay. His voice is more suited to the parts of the male townspeople who visit. There are clear page-turning signals, and the orange tape makes it easy for young children to match it to the book. A.G.H. (c)AudioFile, Portland, Maine --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.