Children's Book Monday {Fall Favorite}

Oh, the stacks of fall books that are about to be pulled from their special drawer and placed in a basket on the nature table! We can almost catch Miss Autumn's scent on the breeze, and this week's pick is at the top of the fall book stack...

Too Many Pumpkins
by Linda White
illustrated by Megan Lloyd

It's the illustrations. No, it's the story. Is it the colors? The food? Well, we can't seem to agree on what exactly we love about this story, but it doesn't really matter- we just love it!

I confess, this one was already pulled from the drawer yesterday at lunch, and even Daddy lingered just a few moments longer before rising to wash the dishes (yes, he's wonderful!), just to see and hear the final pages of this dear book. (The first day of fall is September twenty-third, and I'm usually such a stickler about waiting till that day to set out the fall village and books and candles... I'm having a hard time being patient this year!)

Rebecca Estelle hadn't minded pumpkins as a child, but when times grew hard and money was tight, her family needed to use what they had when it came time to eat, so pumpkins were made into all different kinds of dishes- for breakfast, lunch and dinner. She's vowed to never eat another one- she won't grow them, she won't even look at them!

But when a pumpkin truck takes the corner too tightly near her home and drops one into her yard, Rebecca Estelle is forced to reckon with it, if only for a few moments. She covers it, ignores it, even refuses to use her front door so she won't have to see any remnants!

Well, the rains come with spring and the sunshine comes with summer, and by the next fall, the very thing Rebecca never wanted to grow has taken over her yard, and she simply must do something about it!

Hard work and generosity opens her eyes to new friends and, (could it be possible?) a new appreciation for a certain squash...

We love the two-page spreads of Rebecca Estelle in her kitchen, piles of pumpkin seeds and pumpkin baked goods bringing a beautiful, warmth and color to her home. Megan Lloyd's illustration are, quite possibly, Mama's favorite part of the story; details are especially delightful to me, and between the fall colors and Rebecca's old-fashioned kitchen full of crockery and cheese covers, baskets and fly swatters, it's hard for me to tuck this book away at the end of the season.

But that just makes it all the more enjoyable to pull it out and read it all over again!

Happy Reading!