From My Reading Chair…
Ahhh, to be a kid in the “Fall” in the rural countryside!
There is something especially magical about a school trip, but a school trip in autumn to A PUMPKIN PATCH?! Heaven.
*Runaway Pumpkins* takes that possibility and sends it rolling. A whole class let loose in the crisp air, pumpkins to choose, and absolutely not a single chance that any of them will make it back to school in one piece. (The pumpkins, not the kids. I’m dark, but not THAT dark!) Shenanigans tumble across the pages like our unfortunate pumpkins, but Stephanie Fizer Coleman’s illustrations keep stopping me in my tracks. Their hazy, crayon-and-chalk-like texture gives everything a soft, childlike warmth, while the little panels and vignettes give the visual work room to come alive.
Speaking of which, the pumpkins? GOURDGEOUS! Round, ridged, lumpy, glowing orange big ol’ beauties. There’s a spread where the children imagine what their pumpkins might become, and I am increasingly tempted to tear it from the book and frame it. Obvs, I won’t, but the temptation is real. Very real.
The rhyme opens with a lovely rhythm, although I found some later stanzas a little trickier to hold in my mouth. I’d give it a practice run before sharing, particularly if, like me, you’ve already got a whole performance rhythm going in your head.
What I love most about this story is where all that runaway pumpkin chaos ends up. The children and their neighbours find things to *do* with the pumpkins, turning a mishap into a celebration. There’s room for a deeper conversation about the food cycle and food waste planted in here, without the book ever swapping its muddy boots for a lecture pointer!
*Runaway Pumpkins* is a romp, a tumble and a riotously orange outbreak of school-trip mayhem. This is what the season is all about to me: capers, creativity, community and, with any luck, considerably more pumpkin than anybody had originally planned for. Yum!
Creep on Reading, Pumpkins!