Written by: Mark Kimball Moulton
Illustrated by: Karen Hillard Crouch
I love rhyming books (when done well!) and this one is fantastic! It has a playful use of words that dance through the spooky story of Halloween night, where a most unusual witch prepares for her favorite time of year. Pumpkins, cobwebs, warts, and cauldrons ring in the holiday season as the story of Miss Fiona’s pies unfolds and makes you wonder how to make sure you are at her house when the clock strikes the witching hour.
Discussion/Project Ideas:
I know that Halloween is a tricky subject in schools, so I have tried to give ideas that relate to things commonly found in the season of fall.
1. Measurement: Give a pumpkin to each group of three students.
-Weigh pumpkin
-Remove top (this can be precut by adults) and take out all seeds and pulp
-Replace top and weigh the pumpkin without seeds and pulp
-Weigh the seeds and pulp
-Add together the last two weights. Do they equal your original measurement of weight? Record the difference in weight of the pumpkin with the seeds and pulp inside and the weight of the pumpkin and the seeds/pulp separately (even if the difference is 0).
-As a class, place the differences the groups recorded in order from smallest to largest.
-Find the mean, median, and mode of the differences.
2. Find your favorite passage, page, or verse.
a. Can you write a passage, page, or verse to accompany it?
b. Can you rewrite it as a Haiku, diamante, or cinquain?
c. Can you memorize it and perform it with expression for a group of people?
3. The growth of a pumpkin is an extraordinary thing. Can you describe this process with illustrations?
– for another wonderful picture book that is a great source of pumpkin information, read, Pumpkin Day by: Nancy Elizabeth Wallace