From My Reading Chair…
The thief stole not only the pumpkin, but my heart! First Squirrel’s leaf left, then the flower frolicked away, then the snow shuffled off, then the sun scarpered, and now his poor pumpkin has been PINCHED!
We find our dynamite duo back in the familiar forest, but this time they’ve taken a fancy to growing gourdgeous gourds. Well, Bird has, whilst Squirrel keeps a very keen eye on proceedings. For Squirrel, fetching gardening things becomes increasingly fraught as, one by one, the pumpkins begin to… disappear. All that waiting and hoping, then tragedy strikes!
Alice Hemming’s dynamic dialogue gives Squirrel’s stubborn incredulity such comic force. Squirrel is several pumpkin predicaments past reasonable, with Bird offering patience and practical explanations, much to the reader’s amusement. But, this story is quite the empathy engine too: I’m laughing at Squirrel’s antics, then I’m sharing his anxiety, sense of loss and basking in eventual relief. Bird’s generosity then brings the pleasure of sharing a bountiful harvest with friends.
That’s a lot of feelings to squeeze into a squash!
Nicola Slater’s illustrative command of expression and scale makes the most of that mounting alarm. A mega-humongous pumpkin heist warrants a mega-humongous response, and our squirrel is certainly equipped to provide one! Visual clues give children the delicious possibility of working things out before our increasingly flustered furry detective. Smaller details await discovery after the inevitable fiftieth reread. Once we’ve stopped fretting about the pumpkins, that is.
I was delighted to tumble into Squirrel and Bird’s world once again, this time deep into autumnal chaos. Another rollicking, riotous romp of a read-aloud!
The helpful information in the back pages gives us a hand with our own pumpkin-growing adventures. Identifying potential thieves, however, may require a second opinion from Bird!
