THE PUMPKIN SEED

Change is hard but often worth it.

One spring, an overall-clad child (who narrates) and Mom plant a pumpkin seed in a pot filled with soil. The very day it sprouts tiny leaves, Mom’s romantic partner, Sam, moves in, bringing with her a “strange box with no bottom”—a compost bin that elicits a “yuck” from the youngster. Things are a bit rocky, but everyone enjoys working together in the garden. The pumpkin plant flourishes, and soon it’s time to plant it into the ground. Carrying it to the garden, the narrator stumbles. Sam rushes to help, but the child explodes in a torrent of accusations: “You hurt my knee and broke my pumpkin plant and I wish you’d never come to live here!” Sam is calmly sympathetic; she salvages the plant and points out that compost from the bin “will help the pumpkins grow big and delicious.” O’Neill uses concrete, garden-themed metaphors to convey the child’s complex emotional landscape: The youngster initially feels “all squished” when everyone piles onto the bench in the garden; the long wait until the pumpkins grow offers a satisfying parallel with the patience required when a family adds a new member. Magro’s appealing, mostly realistic button-eyed characters in colorful settings pair well with the text. Mom and the child are brown-skinned and dark-haired; bespectacled Sam is pale-skinned and red-haired.

An emotionally honest portrait of shifting family dynamics.