Rotten Pumpkins for Picture Book Friday

Ok, so you are looking for a scary book for Halloween!  Half the fun of the holiday is the fright factor.  Should you select a book with zombies, the paranormal, or things that go bump in the night?  Those don't hold a candle to the book I am profiling today because as we all know, truth is often times scarier than fiction!

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Title:       Rotten Pumpkin

Author:   David M. Schwartz

Target:    Kindergarten - Grade 6

What this book is about:
Do you ever wonder what happens to a Jack O Latern when Halloween is over ... well wonder no longer.  This book takes us through the decomposition process ripe with slugs, mold, fungi and earthworms.  No slimy, disgusting detail is spared in the telling of this tale.  And of course, the perfect scary stories leave us with some hope at the end and this story is no exception as our forgotten seed sprouts again.

Why I love this book:
My daughter just kept going through the pictures in this book, even though (or should I say because) they grossed her out.  But while the gory details may bring kids to this book, the benefit is that they will learn something about decomposition along the way.  Did you know that a fly vomits on pumpkin flesh so he can lap the nutrients up?  Did you know about the sow bug who eats the pumpkin mold and poops it out to live on on other pumpkins?  You can't make this stuff up.

The photos by Dwight Kuhn are wonderful in their icky details and leave nothing to the imagination.  I also quite liked the experiments that were offered up at the end of the book to keep the learning going.

Who this book is for:
Kids who are curious will enjoy this book.

Final thoughts:
Maybe we won't carve this year, the images are still too fresh!

To purchase this book from Amazon, click on the following link: Rotten Pumpkin: A Rotten Tale in 15 Voices  A portion of each purchase goes to support this blog at no cost to you.