Peter, Peter: The Very Best Pumpkin by Mark Kimball Moulton

IN THE SPRING PETER'S GRANDPARENTS GROW PLUMP, JUICY STRAWBERRIES, AND IN SUMMER CORN, CRISP AND SWEET AS HONEY.

BUT IT IS IN FALL THAT MIMI AND PAPA'S FARM PRODUCES THE MOST WONDERFUL CROP OF

PUMPKINS!

Peter loves to help with the pumpkins, and when he follows a runaway vine into the next field, he finds a special pumpkin that he claims for his own. All summer Peter makes sure that the pumpkin is carefully tended, watered, and protected. And that pumpkin grows into the largest, roundest, most perfect pumpkin of all.

But seemingly unknown to Peter, Meg, a girl new to the area, has been secretly watching him from behind the trees, learning as she sees how a pumpkin is nurtured. And when it is time to harvest the pumpkins and hold their annual pumpkin market, Peter's pumpkin's secret admirer shows up at the sale, her hopes set on the perfect pumpkin.

BUT HE WAS SAVING ONE PUMPKIN...

THE SPECIAL PUMPKIN,

THE BEST PUMPKIN OF ALL...

LATE ONE AFTERNOON MEG AND HER PARENTS CAME TO THE FARM TO PICK THEIR PUMPKIN...

MEG LOOKED EVERYWHERE.

"I THINK I KNOW WHERE TO LOOK," PETER SAID.

Mark Kimball Moulton's new and seasonal The Very Best Pumpkin (Simon & Schuster, 2010) offers a cozy, home-style story for the fall season, a story of pumpkins growing alongside a surprising friendship for the autumn season. Karen H. Good's arresting illustrations lift this simple story: her curving, curling pumpkin vines and glowing palette make this book almost impossible not to pick up and open, and the easy-going story of a friendship that grows along with the garden goes down as sweetly as a holiday pie.