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Pumpkins make for non-spooky Halloween fun

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This time of year has some wonderful attributes. You have a built-in excuse to have giant bags of candy around the house. No one expects a magazine-perfect house when you have old sheets hanging in your front yard and black yarn webs on your porch. And of course, the star of the Halloween show is a very nutritious vegetable. How good can it get?

If you don't want to spend your precious sleep time soothing nightmares away, try these pumpkin books for mild bedtime reading.

“Pumpkin Pumpkin,” written and illustrated by Jeanne Tetherington, is about a boy named James growing a pumpkin seed to a full-sized pumpkin, creating a jack-o-lantern, then saving six seeds for the following year. The pictures are lovely in muted colors and the text is simple and clear for very young children.

You can take your child to visit one of the pumpkin patches in our area. Let them pick out their own pumpkin to take home to decorate. Take time to look at pumpkins and compare their sizes and shapes. Which pumpkins are big enough to sit on like the one in the story?

A story about childhood conflicts, “Pumpkin Soup” is written and illustrated by Helen Cooper. A cat, a squirrel and a duck all live together in a cottage and make pumpkin soup. It is a warm story that has a happy ending.

Pumpkin soup is easy to make. First bake a pumpkin. Take a pie pumpkin, cut a circle around the stem, and clean out the seeds and strings. Put an inch of water inside, put the stem back on loosely, and place in a pan with an inch of water. Bake your pumpkin for one and a quarter hour at 350 degrees. Let it sit for awhile before taking the skin off. You will have about five cups of pumpkin to eat and use in baking. Let your children try it plain. Usually the younger children like it that way. It is safe for babies, too. Put a cup of pumpkin in a sauce pan and add milk, pumpkin pie spice, and a spoonful of sugar. Stir over low heat until it is mixed well and share your pumpkin soup.

“The Runaway Pumpkin” written by Kevin Lewis and illustrated by S. D. Schindler is a funny picture book about a pumpkin who surprises everyone by rolling away. The language is a joy to read and the illustrations have their own story going on.

“Pumpkin Circle: The Story of a Garden” was written in a rhythmic style by George Levenson. The illustrations are outstanding photographs by Shmuel Thaler. This is the true story of how pumpkins grow and will interest young readers long after Halloween has passed.

After reading these two books you may want to prepare a spot in your garden to grow a few pumpkins of your own. You can save the seeds from your pie pumpkin or your jack-o-lantern for planting later.

Sweet dreams.

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