This year the farm pumpkins have decided to have a carved pumpkin contest. They want to see if they can be scarier than the trick-or-treaters. This leads to the brainstorming for ideas.

Professional pumpkin carver- Hugh McMahon provided over 15 different carved pumpkins as the majority of the artwork for this story. Carved orange, white, green, and miniature pumpkins appear as the scaredy-cat, saber-toothed tiger, cobra, mastodon, brontosaurus, triceratops, T. rex, zombie mime, Frankenstein’s creature, Lock (sp) Ness Monster, spiders, skeleton, blood-thirsty bat heads, eyeballs, cannibals, and killer bees.

Along the way the radishes, leeks, parsnips and rutabagas want to join in the fun, but the pumpkins nix their idea. Oh Halloween night the pumpkins are met with giggles by the trick-or-treaters, who are finally scared when the vegetables make their appearance.

Finally, Hugh McMahon gives a pictorial tutorial in 11 steps on “How to Carve Your Own Scaredy-Cat Pumpkin” and instructions for roasting pumkin seeds.

Fun for all ages. Children will enjoy the story and the artwork. I can see adults wanting this book for a seasonal coffee table book.

Author Patricia Byers and illustrator Tamsin Ainslie have collaborated to bring young people 9 visual representations of singular, plural, and then the collective name for the noun group.

Examples: sheep, sheep, flock :   goose, geese, gaggle:   elephant, elephants, parade:   butterfly, butterflies, kaleidoscope

Children in cute playful costumes, with and without hand puppets, and stuffed animals stroll / prance around each page on an all-white background giving a visual definition to each set of related words.

Ainslie’s style is vaguely similar to Mary Englebreit.

This is a well written book about spying and double agents.  There is a lot of information for such a small book.  You learn what it takes to become a spy.  Why people become double agents.   What espionage is and you learn about some very famous spies.  It is hard to believe that someone would betray their own country to be a spy.  If a spy is caught their punishment is usually death.

14-year old Mike, who is afflicted with dyscalculia, (a math disability) is being raised by a brilliant father who continually tries to cultivate Mike’s love for math and engineering.  While he goes off Romania for work, Mike’s father sends him off to rural Pennsylvania to live with distant relatives Moo and Poppy.  This small town, of quirky characters, (a great-uncle who never talks, a near-blind great aunt, a punk rocker, a homeless dude, and the “three stooges”) happens to need someone to “engineer” the project of raising $40,000 in three weeks.  Mike rises to the occasion, giving you the happily-ever-after story you seek.

The stick-figure book cover will draw the attention of your Wimpy Kid audience.  The humor and eccentric characters will appeal to those middle schoolers still reading elementary-level books.  Weaknesses of the book include the overwhelming number of characters who happen to be grieving the loss of a loved one and moodiness of the main character.  Plusses include the title (brilliant!) and the clever introduction of math terms at the beginning of each chapter.

I enjoyed this book with the rescue stories, but after the Thirtymile Fire story the others seemed not so exciting.  I liked the survival facts that were given.  They would be of great help if put in those situations.  Each story had good information for anyone to know, information that could save your life.

There is a list of words in the back, Words to Survive By.   There is a list of books that you might like to read and web sites that would have more information.  Also an index.

This is a very cute book about a bear, Lucy, who wants to keep a child as a pet.  Mother bear tells Lucy that children make terrible pets.  But Lucy is allowed to keep the pet, Squeaker.  Lucy and Squeaker are inseparable.   But Squeaker does not train well and ruined the furniture.   Then one day Squeaker disappears and Lucy is very sad. But Lucy saw Squeaker with his family and realized that Squeaker needs to be with his family.

This book has a fun ending that is not expected and the children love.  Great pictures and a fun idea to be a pet to a wild animal.

A is for Arrr! is an ABC book telling all about pirates using photographs (they don’t look too scary and may even be from some movies they’ve seen), illustrations, and drawings.  The author was able to use every letter of the alphabet.  The back of the book includes some interesting tidbits plus the usual glossary and index.  This book will make a nice addition to the pirate section of the library.

This is the story of two 13-year-old girls, each on different ends of the spectrum.  Aphrodite, “Dytee,” is a genius and at the age of 13, has already graduated with a master’s degree from Harvard in math.  Mindy, also 13, is in remedial math in eighth grade, and must pass or else will be held back.  Dytee has a theory that everyone can be a math whiz if just given the correct instruction.  Mindy and her co-hort of classmates have been labeled as ‘boneheads’ and don’t think they can learn anything, although they’re desperate to try.  Dytee comes back to her hometown, her home school, and is the new math teacher for the ‘boneheads.’  A 13-year-old teaching other 13-year-olds.  As you can imagine, she has no control over them whatsoever.  She was never part of that group of kids who skipped classes and was so disrespectful to the teachers and who never did any homework.  Just the opposite, she was a ‘good girl,’ well behaved, never truant nor disrespectful.  She dressed like an old lady and acted like an old lady.  After many weeks of torture, for all of them, Dytee was able to strike a deal with the ‘boneheads.’  She knew they wanted to pass math so they could go to high school, and they were desperate.  She entered them in a math challenge bowl as a team.  If they could at least make a respectable showing, she would pass them, for she truly believed that they were competent but were living up to their reputations because it was easier that way to fit in with the cliques.  Each student presented a math project which was designed to exemplify what they wanted to do in life, showing how math was important.  They formed study groups and met each day after school.  Dytee tutored Mindy in math.  Mindy also tutored Dytee in how to be a 13-year-old and to act accordingly, especially in her dress styles.  Needless to say, everyone was an ugly duckling and became swans.  This book would make a great Disney movie.  Snappy dialogue, fast action, but no surprises, in fact, very predictable.  I think girls who are a little like Dytee or like Mindy will enjoy this book.

This book has a lot of play-on-words, which are great!  Some of them are a bit over the heads of children but are great for adults.  It might be fun to explain the meaning of the different play on words.

Bernie Bridges attends Rotten House Boarding School, and he is definitely rotten. However, Bernie has decided to change his ways to impress April May June, the coolest, hottest girl in school that gave Bernie one week to be a better student than Sherman Oaks, a spoiled rich kid. Well, Bernie runs into trouble with Headmaster Upchuck, Jennifer Ecch, the girl who wants to take Bernie to the dance, and Mrs. Heine, a teacher. Unfortunately, Bernie’s’ efforts are in vain. Crazy, rotten things happen in this book! The illustrations are descriptive and show unique expression. Great for reluctant readers.