Live at Five! Pete the Cat: Five Little Pumpkins by James Dean

Five painted pumpkin heads... were planted on a gate!

Along with Pete the Cat... on Halloween!

Never a cat to miss a big event, Pete joins some friendly pumpkin heads, decorated as pirates, a vampire pumpkin, and one Frankenhead.

The first pumpkin on the gate takes note that it's late, and the the second points out witches flying through the air. The third pumpkin doesn't have a care, the fourth pumpkin proposes a run, and the fifth and last suggests that they try to have some fun. They're off, on a roll--on five skateboards, with Pete sharing his own board with a pirate pumpkin with an eye patch.

OOOOH! WENT THE WIND

OUT WENT THE LIGHTS!

AND THE FIVE LITLE PUMPKINS,

ROLLED OUT OF SIGHT.

The popular poem, "Five Little Pumpkins" is a preschool Halloween staple for youngsters learning to count from one to five, and James Dean's Pete the Cat: Five Little Pumpkins (Harper, 2015) teaches tots to count from one to five as the five jolly jack o' lanterns join the witches, ghosts, vampires, and bats on All Hallow's Eve. Dean's familiar faux naif style is not displaced by the creepy crowd one bit, and Pete the Cat is definitely "walking in his red shoes" for this one.

But if you have planned a holiday-ish class reading circle or a festive bedtime read, you're going to need a few more books as back-up for this short and sweet fare. On the other hand, the limited but rhythmic text and rockin' rhymes make it a natural for emergent readers to read solo to themselves.

Share this one with a review of the countdown in Marcia Vaughn's vivacious Five Pesky Pumpkins: A Counting Book with Flaps and Pop-Ups!, whose five Jack o' Lanterns make their disappearances with a great deal more drama, and Margaret McNamara's classroom classic, How Many Seeds in a Pumpkin? (Mr. Tiffin's Classroom Series), (read review here). And have a pumpkin at hand for Halloween carving!