Not Your Father's Jack-o'-Lantern: Extreme Pumpkins by Tom Nardone

Here's a brand-new book which is just the thing for all you cut-ups out there who want to carve out a reputation as the kookiest punkin scultor in the neighborhood. The eye-catching cover really says it all: a bright orange Cannibal Pumpkin leers while its twisted mouth crunches down on a hapless baby pumpkin. The book's blurb calls it "a gleefully gory guide for nothing short of a manifesto to take back Halloween from the cutesy and the cheerful...."

Inside this handy paperback there are plenty more extreme creations for every taste (or lack thereof)--from an edible centerpiece Burger Pumpkin in which the two halves of the pumpkin shell form the bun around a giant beef patty with lettuce, tomatoes, special sauce, ya-da, ya-da, ya-da, to Nardone's signature Pukin' Pumpkin which literally spills its guts (seed and slimy pumpkin innards) all around.

One of the designs which is perhaps a little lower on the gross-out scale is the clever Worm Infested Pumpkin, an unhappy looking jack o'-lantern with gummy worms squiggling out of a series of round holes in his head. Higher up the gross-out chart is the Revolting Blood-filled Pumpkin, a practical joke waiting to happen, an innocent-looking uncarved pumpkin which spills "homemade blood" (recipe, page 10) when the clueless would-be carver makes his first cut.

Some of the other featured designs include the Roadkill-Eating Pumpkin (actual roadkill optional), the Brain Surgery Pumpkin (leaking "brains), and the Radioactive Pumpkin, lighted with glowsticks. All of these designs have excellent directions and lists of materials easily found at your local big box stores, and although they do require some adult participation in the process, there is plenty of room for creative kids to have a hand in the final product.

If you are involved in your hometown Halloween house of horrors or just want a jack-o'-lantern that'll give the trick-or-treaters something to think about, Nardone's Extreme Pumpkins: Diabolical Do-It-Yourself Designs to Amuse Your Friends and Scare Your Neighbors will help you carve a creation they'll never forget!