

They were on her porch, birdbath, hammock, on the railing and even in her tree. Next, the pumpkins grew all up in her front yard, over and under everything. So that's 6 months, half the year, where she wouldn't even look out a window. I felt bad for it! What ruined it even further and went too far was when, after she tore the vines up, they grew back and she resolved to close her blinds and never look out them again all spring and summer. The cat had a startled expression and it's tail was between its legs. Her cat was playing in the leaves and she picked it up and carried it away, wouldn't let her even play in them.

If she's thoroughly sick of them and never wants to eat them or see them again, that's fine, but the hatred and the lengths she went to were too much. I understand that as a girl, Rebecca had had to eat nothing but pumpkins there for a while and she was heartily sick of them. I didn't even like the use of the word hate, because I thought that was too strong. I thought the author went too far with the hatred of pumpkins. This is an ideal Halloween-time book for those who want to bypass ghouls and goblins (or any actual mention of Halloween) and focus on. Illustrator Megan Lloyd creates spunky, detail-rich drawings that are sure to hold up to the scrutiny of youngsters everywhere.

In Too Many Pumpkins, a 1996 American Bookseller "Pick of the Lists," Linda White (who based the book on her own pumpkin-eating aunt Becky) reveals how swallowing one's personal (pumpkin) prejudices can end up benefiting a whole community. She buried the mess so she wouldn't have to look at it, and, as you might imagine, she witnessed a bumper crop the following fall. One day, years and years later, white-haired Rebecca was busy not eating pumpkins when-SPLAT-a giant pumpkin fell off an overloaded truck and smashed into her yard. But if you were forced to eat only pumpkins (baked, steamed, boiled, stewed, mashed, and rotten), you might agree with Rebecca, who was so poor as a child that she could only afford to eat the unrelentingly orange squash. Certainly, pumpkins are benign, as far as gourds go, and they make for delicious pies. "What's not to like?" you may be thinking.
