A book to outlast every jack-o’-lantern.
Guidance for readers seeking to responsibly dispose of dilapidated holiday décor.
Jack-o’-lanterns are fragile and rot quickly. How can we keep them from consuming landfill space, producing methane, and, in liquifying, conveying chemicals into groundwater (as backmatter explains)? The answer is a celebration: the community pumpkin smash. Accompanied by an expressive blackbird, three children go trick-or-treating. But soon the decay of their many pumpkins, and their neighbors’, is evident. Time for a second phase of fun: smashing! “Will you use a baseball bat?” asks the omniscient narrator. “Maybe launch it from a sling?” (An illustration depicts the kids using a catapult.) The tots also drop the gourds from up high and stomp on them—in waterproof boots, of course. At last, it’s time to for these pumpkins to “DECOMPOSE!” In the spring, the kids plant a seed for the next All Hallows’ crop. Final pages clearly explain in more detail the environmental reasons for, and process of, composting pumpkins. Schaub’s bouncy, accessible text has some irregular rhymes. Alexander’s illustrations feature strong reds, but what makes this book stand out among the black-and-orange crowd are the bright blues, greens, yellows, and browns in the bold stencil-like art. One child is pale-skinned; the other two are brown-skinned.
A book to outlast every jack-o’-lantern. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: Aug. 25, 2026
ISBN: 9781324083085
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Norton Young Readers
Review Posted Online: May 18, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2026
More fun antics to satisfy returning fans and snag new ones.
Not even the arrival of autumn can cool down this impetuous squirrel.
Although Squirrel is skeptical about Bird’s vegetable patch (“Nothing is HAPPENING!”), Bird does produce five (count them) lovely pumpkins. Squirrel picks out a favorite: “The enormous orange one.” Bird hints that Squirrel might want to help out; Squirrel sets out to fetch some work gloves and returns to find only four pumpkins. The frequently distracted Squirrel notices more gourds disappearing and leaps to the conclusion that a thief is near. And where’s Bird?! Has Squirrel’s pal also been taken? Diligently detecting, Squirrel finds clues—peck marks, footprints, and more—and produces a sketch of the suspect. As readers will guess, each clue turns out to point to one of Squirrel and Bird’s friends. Turns out Bird was delivering pumpkins to their pals while saving the big one to give to “my very best friend,” Squirrel. But why does Squirrel haul it up a tree? “So the Pumpkin Thief can’t find it, of course!” A page of pumpkin facts provides the learning component common to all titles in this series. Once more, readers will enjoy the pleasure of prediction and repetition, Squirrel’s silly persistence, Bird’s generosity, and the vibrant color illustrations, balancing orange with green.
More fun antics to satisfy returning fans and snag new ones. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: July 28, 2026
ISBN: 9781464268076
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Sourcebooks Jabberwocky
Review Posted Online: Aug. 11, 2026
Pete’s fans might find it groovy; anyone else has plenty of other “12 Days of Christmas” variants to choose among
Pete, the cat who couldn’t care less, celebrates Christmas with his inimitable lassitude.
If it weren’t part of the title and repeated on every other page, readers unfamiliar with Pete’s shtick might have a hard time arriving at “groovy” to describe his Christmas celebration, as the expressionless cat displays not a hint of groove in Dean’s now-trademark illustrations. Nor does Pete have a great sense of scansion: “On the first day of Christmas, / Pete gave to me… / A road trip to the sea. / GROOVY!” The cat is shown at the wheel of a yellow microbus strung with garland and lights and with a star-topped tree tied to its roof. On the second day of Christmas Pete gives “me” (here depicted as a gray squirrel who gets on the bus) “2 fuzzy gloves, and a road trip to the sea. / GROOVY!” On the third day, he gives “me” (now a white cat who joins Pete and the squirrel) “3 yummy cupcakes,” etc. The “me” mentioned in the lyrics changes from day to day and gift to gift, with “4 far-out surfboards” (a frog), “5 onion rings” (crocodile), and “6 skateboards rolling” (a yellow bird that shares its skateboards with the white cat, the squirrel, the frog, and the crocodile while Pete drives on). Gifts and animals pile on until the microbus finally arrives at the seaside and readers are told yet again that it’s all “GROOVY!”
Pete’s fans might find it groovy; anyone else has plenty of other “12 Days of Christmas” variants to choose among . (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: Sept. 18, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-06-267527-9
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Aug. 19, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2018
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