Too Many Pumpkins
1 Paperback/1 CD (see all formats)

"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."

"Fluid editing of dissolves and pans of Megan Lloyd-Thompson's illustrations bring a nice sense of movement 'to Linda White's 1996 tale about an elderly woman's creative solution to a surfeit of pumpkins. The pen-and-ink drawings in an autumnal pallete offer numerous points of reference for the camera that twists among the fecund green vines and alights on the baked pumpkin delicacies and glowing orange jack-o'-lanterns that lure the lady's neighbors to her kitchen. The male narrator reads expressively but is rather overbearing in tone, and musical segments frame this sure-to-please holiday treat."

"Take a book, add a read-along tape, and you have a package which invites kids to learn reading skills through follow-along listening, giving parents a break for readalouds. New to this publisher s list is Linda White's Too Many Pumpkins."

"Having survived the Great Depression on a steady diet of pumpkins, Rebecca Estelle swears she will1have nothing more to do with them. One day, a pumpkin flies off a jouncing farm truck and smashes at the edge of Rebecca Estelle's yard, flinging pumpkin pieces everywhere. Despite her best efforts to eradicate the fruit, seeds and sprouting vines, Rebecca Estelle has a bumper crop of pumpkins on her hands the following fall. Her efforts to get rid of the unwanted bounty results in a jolly harvest feast for her neighbors."