Snow Pumpkin // sleeper54's 'Hallowe'en Night W/O'
Written: Oct 30 '03 (Updated Oct 30 '03)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Beautiful artwork. A clever, original story.
Cons: Your kids will want to make a 'snow pumpkin' . . .let them!
The Bottom Line: Snow Pumpkin is a friend that you and your children will want to revisit year after year.
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| sleeper54's Full Review: Snow Pumpkin |
"Night before last, when the first snow fell, Gram was the one who couldn't believe it. 'Too early,' she said. 'It's still October.' "
From Snow Pumpkin by Carole Lexa Schaefer
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It was an early snow this autumn. Unexpectedly so. As Gram's reaction above tells. Lily is excited by this unexpected treat. As snow always excites a young child.
The next morning, measuring ". . .a little pillow of snow (resting) on my window sill. . .three inches" deep, Lily finds it enough to think of making a snowman. Soon she is on her way to the park, meeting her friend Jesse there. She and he find many others with the same idea of making winter fun: snowmen, snowball fights, snow-angels.
Weaving in and amongst and around all the others, Lily and Jesse roll together enough snow for all but the head of a snowman. While continuing to roll snow, trying to make a snowman's head worthy to be called such, they wander near the vegetable patch of Gram and Lily. There ". . .(showing) as bright as three orange suns" are some pumpkins. And "the middle one has a face."
This pumpkin they return to the park with, using it as a unique 'topping' for their "snow pumpkin man." But alas, the warmth of the following day takes back all but the pumpkin head of their snowman. Only their 'snow pumpkin' remains.
Reclaimed from the puddled ground, 'snow pumpkin' eventually rests on the same sill where before was snow, three inches deep. There he sits, still, on Halloween eve "and smiles" over the costumed children in the street below.
Snow Pumpkin is the story of children at play. They create and complete and reclaim their 'snow pumpkin man' and their 'snow pumpkin'. Decorating the window where their 'snow pumpkin' sits with paper snowflakes, the kids drive this story, not the adults.
Lavishly but minimally illustrated by Pierr Morgan, the bright, thick, opaque watercolors contrast sharply with the oatmeal-speckled brown pages of the book. Perfectly illustrated for a book to be read aloud, with clean, uncluttered pictures and pages. With no more than one or two or four lines of text per page, the story easily evokes the memory of the first snowfall of winter, the chill of creating a snowman, the fun of Halloween and costumes and pumpkin faces outlasting a cold snowfall.
The Bottom Line
Snow Pumpkin is a book that you and your children will want to revisit year after year. The delightful telling of a first snow, a first snowman (a snowman with a pumpkin head!) Snow Pumpkin cleverly blends familiar objects in a fresh, unique manner that stimulates a seasonal longing for those who read and listen.
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This is an entry in my ...Halloween Night Write-Off.... Please feel free to 'get spooky with us!'
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"Just the facts, ma'am"
Title: Snow Pumpkin
Author: Carole Lexa Schaefer
Illustrator: Pierr Morgan
Publisher: Crown Publishers
Copyright: 2000, text: Schaefer / illustrations: Morgan
Pages: 36
ISBN #: 0-517-80016-0
Ages recommended: 4 to 8 years old
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
sleeper54
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Location: "Is this Heaven?"......"No. It's Iowa."
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About Me:
Back-in-the-heartland...brief respite before real-world work begins. Hopefully less intensive than I imagine it will be..!!
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