Where There's A Will, There's A Way! Runaway Pumpkins by Teresa Bateman

It's the first field trip of the year. Kids are hustling; teachers are bustling! The bus is here! Children cheer!

WINDOWS FOG AS FACES GRIN!

THE FIELD TRIP'S READY TO BEGIN!
It's down the road and round the bend, and then the visit to the pumpkin patch begins. The class spreads out, each one hoping to find the perfect pumpkin for their own jack o' lantern, the one that could win first prize at the Autumn Fair. But how can they choose when there are so many there?

BUMPY, LUMPY, STRAIGHT OR CURVY. REALLY ROUND OR TOPYSY TURVY!

So many pumpkins! Better be quick. Hurry and scurry, each one must pick!
Finally the bus driver stows each chosen pumpkin away, latched inside the big bins under the bus. The kids thank the farmer and climb aboard, and waving to the pigs watching from their stye, they pull away and head back to school.
Brains are busy; lots of possibilities there! Which one will win in the Autumn Fair?
Silly, scary, ghouly, goofy? Frightful, artsy, simple, spoofy?
But just as the kids wish the bus would go faster, the latches come loose and there is a disaster! Their precious pumpkins roll out with a smash and a crash. Now there are no pumpkins, just seeds, chunks, and pieces. The only pumpkin left is the huge one tied to the roof of the bus. While the bus drives on, midst gloom and doom, people come out to view the scene and begin to clean.

ALL A-TIZZY, THEY TAKE THEM HOME AND THEN ALL GET BUSY!

Back at school, the kids make the best of it, pitching in to make that huge pumpkin--their first group project--good enough to win the prize at the Autumn Fair.
But at the Fair...

SURPRISE! PUMPKIN CUPCAKES, COOKIES, CAKES AND PIES!

And at the Autumn fair, there's plenty to share in Teresa Bateman's latest, Runaway Pumpkins (Charlesbridge Publishing, 2020). Teresa Bateman is the doyenne of rhyming stories, and this making-the-best-of-it tale is a jolly addition to pumpkin-time picture books for primary readers. And then there are plenty more where this one came from! (See more here).