Tasha Tudor passed away this summer. You may recognize her work from the covers of The Secret Garden
and A Little Princess
(when published by HarperFestival). Having lived a full and fascinating life based on the styles and habits of the 19th Century, she was the Thoreau of her time. Her book, Pumpkin Moonshine
, has always been the book that comes to mind when I think of the fall. It is the story of a little girl and a runaway pumpkin. It is sweet and simple—reminiscent of an era gone by.
Here are some of the books you all listed for our harvest of great books dialogue:
The Little Old Lady Who Was Not Afraid of Anything
by Linda Williams
Max’s Halloween (Max and Ruby)
by Rosemary Wells
I Know an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Pie (Picture Puffins)
by Alison Jackson and Judy Schachner
The Stranger
by Chris Van Allsburg (my favorite of his after The Polar Express)
A Plump and Perky Turkey
by Teresa Bateman and Jeff Shelly
Four Scary Stories
by Tony Johnston
The Hallo-wiener
by Dav Pilkey
Thank you everyone for all your other marvelous suggestions. If you haven’t had a chance yet, you can peruse them all in the comments section.
A special thanks to Erin who reminded me of the name of the book I rambled about on that post. It was called Pumpkins: A Story for a Field
by Mary Lyn Ray and Barry Root
I have one more suggestion. Jerry Seinfeld Halloween
. My husband and I laugh over this until we almost cry. We were both the kids who had to go trick-or-treating with our winter coats on . . . you’ll see what I mean when you read the book. We bought the book for ourselves, but the kids love it, too. I must warn you, though, it is a little rude in some parts (he uses the words shut-up and stupid, and is ungrateful to a nice old lady), at which points I will either switch in another word, or say things like, “We don’t say shut-up. We don’t treat people like that.” Then I just laugh on the inside so the kids can’t see.
My husband just emailed me a YouTube link where you can see the pictures, and hear Jerry perform the stand-up routine that goes with it.
I love the Seinfeld book!!
There’s a few of those books we haven’t read yet, so thanks for the tip. My husband and I love Seinfeld, so that’s gonna be a must read for us too. I’ll check out the video soon.
Thanks, Jaime!
I hadn’t heard that TT had passed away (which makes me sad although she certainly had a long and full life, sunbonnets to boot). I just brought up my worn copy of A Time to Keep to Seattle so I could share it with my nieces. I adored that book as a kid. Must track down Pumpkin Moonshine now.
We bought that Jerry Seinfield book a few years ago and we too laughed all the way through! My oldest son loved it so much we continued to read it well after Halloween was over. Definitely a favorite!