Did Someone Say Pie? Seed, Sprout, Pumpkin Pie by Jill Esbaum

HAVE YOU PICKED YOUR PUMPKIN?

Whether you "pick" your pumpkin from your own backyard, the local pumpkin patch, or from the display at your favorite grocery store, that jolly orange orb is THE symbol of fall, a fine fruit which nurtured the founding fathers' families, which as our beloved Jack-o'-lantern inherited the English tradition of scary, carved vegetable lanterns, and a versatile vegetable that appears as a staple of our Thanksgiving table.

Jill Esbaum's Seed, Sprout, Pumpkin, Pie (Picture the Seasons) (National Geographic Kids) takes the young reader from the spring day when those rounded pumpkin seeds go into the ground through the first sprouting, the vines which leaf out in their characteristic curlicues, the gorgeous pumpkin flowers that bloom in summer, and the tiny green balls that increase rapidly into the giant globes we know and love.

THE PUMPKIN IS A KIND OF SQUASH.

THEY CAN BE GREEN, RED, TAN, YELLOW, WHITE, OR EVEN BLUE.

THERE ARE TALL PUMPKINS, SHORT PUMPKINS, SMOOTH OR BUMPY PUMPKINS.

WEE ONES ONLY INCHES WIDE, OR GIANTS YOU CAN SIT INSIDE.

Seed, Sprout, Pumpkin, Pie (Picture the Seasons) is filled with National Geographic's trademark full-color photographs of pumpkins--pumpkins growing, pumpkins harvested, pumpkins carved in many ways, and the delicious foods prepared from the pumpkin's flesh and its delectable seeds, even pumpkins carved into actual boats!

In easy-to-read minimal text, the author even shows the annual Jack-o'-lantern makers how to prepare the seeds as a snack or dry them for planting themselves for a showy landscaping plant with a golden bonus, not to mention fodder for animals or the useful composting material that Jacks past their prime provide for gardens. The book ends with a poignant photo of a pumpkin patch receiving its blanket of winter snow, showing that the traditional pumpkin is indeed a plant for all seasons.

Jack's Backstory: The Story of the Jack O'Lantern by Katherine Tegen

THERE ONCE WAS A MAN NAMED JACK, WHO WAS STINGY AND MEAN.

IF JACK HAD A CHANCE TO TAKE SOMETHING,HE TOOK IT.

IF JACK COULD DO SOMETHING NASTY,HE DID IT.

THE PEOPLE IN THE VILLAGE HID WHEN HE CAME BY.

Being the meanest man in the world is a full-time job, and Jack works at it.

So on one All Hallow's Eve, when Mean Jack meets up with an unusual man with odd hands and feet in the village inn, he is not troubled by the whispers that the stranger is the Devil himself. Jack is all too eager to take advantage of the man's offer of a free meal:

"I'LL PAY FOR YOUR DINNER," SAID THE MAN.

"BUT YOU HAVE TO PAY ME BACK ON THE DAY YOU DIE."

So Jack shrugs his shoulders and does the deal, figuring no one can collect a debt from a dead man.

But tricking the Devil himself is near to impossible, and true to his bargain, on a Hallow's Eve many years later Old Nick is back to collect his due.

All unaware, on his way home from the village, Jack spots some harvested turnips and pumpkins piled by the road and figures his hard-working neighbor will never miss the two plump pumpkins he pinches. Back home, though, as Jack carves open his prize to get at the tasty seeds, a familiar figure appears in front of him.

"IT'S TIME TO PAY ME BACK!" HE SAID.

"BUT I'M NOT DEAD YET!" SAID JACK.

"YOU WILL BE," SAID THE MAN, AS HE THREW A BURNING COAL JACK'S WAY.

Jack manages to dodge the burning coal by catching it in his hollowed-out pumpkin where it glows like a lantern, but he doesn't escape the Devil's penance for his evil ways:

"BECAUSE OF YOUR LIFE OF MEANESS AND GREED, YOU ARE CONDEMNED TO WANDER THE EARTH IN SEARCH OF A HOME."

Katherine Tegen's The Story of the Jack O'Lantern, (Harper, 2010) rounds the edges of this classic origin story of how the familiar glowing pumpkin face, now typically seen cheerily lighting a big grin, became the iconic and ubiquitous emblem of Halloween. As her author's note explains, All Hallow's Eve, or "Hallow'een," the evening before the church holiday of All Souls Day, was the night in which the spirits of the dead, the good and the not-so-good, returned to earth, the good ones to comfort the living and the evil ones to torment them with tricks and evil deeds. The custom of dressing in costumes and carrying candlelit hollow turnips with frightful carved faces to scare off bad spirits persisted in the New World, where Indian pumpkins lent themselves even better as makeshift lanterns--and Jack-o' the Lantern lives on, named for that mean man who it is said still wanders the earth with his own private lantern lit by the Devil's coal of fire.

For youngsters who wonder (and especially for those who don't), Tegen's brief recounting of this piquant piece of folklore, brightly illustrated by veteran artist Brandon Dorman, tells the tale well, a treat that explains how these improbable traditions arose and why those familiar glowing scowls and grins still light the night for us as we, like Jack, go forth for a bit of nighttime foraging on All Hallow's Eve.

More Max Jacks: Extreme Pumpkins II by Tom Nardone

Tom Nardone, author of the top-selling Extreme Pumpkins: Diabolical Do-It-Yourself Designs to Amuse Your Friends and Scare Your Neighbors and proprietor of his riotous website ExtremePumpkins.com, has a new volume out for the prankster in all of us, the outrageous Extreme Pumpkins II: Take Back Halloween and Freak Out a Few More Neighbors.

Nardone's stated goal for both books is to "reclaim Halloween from the cheerful, the cutesy, and the parent-sanctioned." This sequel advertises such artistic triumphs as the Demented Tool Man pumpkin depicted on the cover, as well as the Projectile Sneeze Pumpkin, Baseball-in-the-Eye Pumpkin, Doll-Eating Pumpkin, and Full-Diaper Baby Pumpkin. Nardone even, er, branches out to that twisted relative of the pumpkin, the gourd, to exorcise, er, I mean exercise, his dark-side-of-Martha-Stewart talents.

Although a loaded-diaper jackie o'lantern may be a tiny bit gross, it's a pretty funny concept that'll give trick or treaters and their bored parents a chuckle on the big night. And if you want to keep your 'tweeners and teeners around for at least part of Halloween night, have an Extreme Pumpkin Party with a take-home product to surprise and delight their own family and neighbors. It's a sorta, kinda, almost wholesome activity for merry pranksters who need to sublimate their drive to make mischief, and if you have the stomach for it, you can always make pumpkin pie out of the, er, remains.

For last season's review of Nardone's first book, see my post of October 12, 2007, here.

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!