This is a wonderful book that is perfect to read to kids around Halloween, or even a couple days after Halloween.

This story is about a little boy named Tim, he carved a perfect pumpkin and gave it a name. The name of his perfect pumpkin was “Jack”. Tim loved Jack so much that he kept him in his room and lit him every night even after Halloween was over.

This is cute Halloween story and the first pages show Tim lovingly carving his pumpkin friend. The illustrations are very realistic. And Tim looks very much like a real little boy.

From the moment my husband read this book to the kids I loved it. And you are about to find out why.

Tim’s Mother announced one day that it was time to throw Jack out. Tim decided that he would rather put the put jack in the dead garden instead of putting him in the garbage. He thought this was a more suitable resting place for his perfect pumpkin.

The rest of the book is pure brilliance in my opinion. It explains in great detail how Jack changes in the garden each time that Tim goes out to see him or it, however you want to put it. It explains how Jack goes flatter as the days grow colder, and is soon covered with snow.

When the snow melts Jack goes to see what is left of his pumpkin friend. There is almost nothing left but some seeds, a stem and few pieces of pumpkin. Tim bids a fond farewell to his friend and covers the remaining parts of Jack with dirt. When the spring rolls around Tim finds a sprout coming out of the ground where Jack was buried.

I think this book is wonderful, because it illustrates how old can be come new again. And that when you love and care for something that you can get so much out of it. It also goes on to explain how Tim takes care of his pumpkin sprout. This teaches children about taking responsibility for something.

The book also explains in brilliant and simple detail what happens to a pumpkin plant as it goes through its process. It explains how the sprout grew to vines and how it took a long time for an actual pumpkin to arrive. It tells of how the plants develop yellow flowers, and how eventually a little green ball forms underneath the blossoms. Then Tim begins to find the green pumpkins. And how the leaves begin to wither away and how the frost comes. Then Tim discovers that the pumpkin plants are dying. Tim then finds all of the unripe pumpkins, picks them and brings them to the front porch to ripe. I won’t tell you the ending but I think you can pretty much guess it.

I just love the way this book explains the growing process. I even learned something myself. I once had a pumpkin growing in my garden, it was green and I waited for it to ripen before I picked it. Of course it never ripened and I never picked it. It just kind of withered kind of like Jack. Now I know for next time that once the plant begins to die will need to pick the pumpkin and let it ripen off of the plant. Who says grownups can’t learn anything from children’s books.

This book was written and illustrated by Will Hubbell, and was copyrighted in 2000. As I said before the illustrations are brilliant and very realistic. When the pumpkin plants are growing and blossoming it looks very much like a real pumpkin plant, it shows the various blossoms at different stages. Also as I said before the features of Tim’s face are also very realistic. There is also another page that shows several other children each of them different and of various ethnic backgrounds. I particularly appreciate how the eyebrows of each child are done. They are al different and very realistic and their faces have the perfect amount of shading.

It also shows what a generous boy Tim was and teaches about sharing because Tim shared his pumpkins with all of those other children.

I would say that the age group for this book would range from about 31/2 to 8 years old.

I liked this book on so many different levels. But I guess ultimately it is more important what the kids think about it. When I asked my 4 year old son how he liked the book he screamed, “Great”. He then grabbed the book and turned to the page where Tim picked the new pumpkins. He then said, “I liked when he found the new pumpkins.” This is great because it showed that my son really found this book interesting and listened enough to get something out of it. That right there is worth the price of the book for me. Which could run you about 15.95 if you pay full price for it. But if you are a bargain hunter you can find it for less brand new. If you hurry you can snatch one up for $11.45 on Half.com.

Conclusion

I think you can tell that I loved this book. I thought it was great on so many levels. Do I recommend this book? I have to give that question and over whelming “YES”. Oh yeah and my kids liked it too.


Recommended: Yes