Review - Pumpkin Heads

Pumpkin Heads
by Wendell Minor
Date: 2000
Publisher: Charlesbridge Publishing
Reading level: C
Book type: picture book
Pages: 32
Format: e-book
Source: library

Halloween is time to pick pumpkins and carve them into pumpkin heads--jack-o'-lanterns of every shape and size!

Award-winning author and artist Wendell Minor uses simple language and striking autumn settings to celebrate jack-o'-lanterns in this reissue of a Halloween classic. The perfect holiday read aloud, Pumpkin Heads takes readers and trick-or-treaters from the pumpkin patch for picking, all the way home for carving, and gets everyone in the Halloween spirit.

(synopsis from Goodreads)

While some of the illustrations in Pumpkin Heads are lovely, the book is rather simple and uninteresting. I'm not a fan of the layout, which pairs a page of sparse text and a translucent pumpkin with a fully illustrated page depicting the various carved pumpkins. The resulting look is uneven, with the text pages appearing slapped together while the illustrated pages look like they were laboured over. There's no story; the text is just a means to introduce the pumpkins.

Can we mention the cover for a moment? Am I the only one who thinks this looks like a horror story? That particular arrangement of pumpkins is supposed to be a snowman, but it looks rather menacing.

I'm not sure who I'd recommend this one to. Children old enough to appreciate the artwork probably won't be impressed by the lack of story. Children young enough not to care about the story might be unnerved by some of the illustrations.

Premise: 3/5
Meter: n/a
Writing: 2/5
Illustrations: 3/5
Originality: 2/5

Enjoyment: 2/5

Overall: 2.33 out of 5