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Rotten Pumpkin
Compost won't mean the same thing after readers have seen the amazing transformation of Jack from grinning pumpkin to mold-mottled wreckage to hopeful green shoot. The story of decomposition is vividly told so that science comes to life (and death). Part story, part science, and a whole lot of fun. Features a teacher guide in the back of the book, and additional material (including instructions on how to put on a Rotten Pumpkin play in your school) are on the Creston and Author websites.
32 pages, Hardcover
First published July 23, 2013
2 people are currently reading
284 people want to read
About the author
David M. Schwartz
87 books28 followers As a child, I was filled with a sense of awe as I contemplated the universe. The huge numbers of stars and their sizes and distances never failed to amaze me. With binoculars and magnifying glass, I also focused on closer subjects like birds, flowers, frogs and bugs.
But science and math weren't my only fascinations: I also loved bicycles, baseball, boats…and ice cream. Years later, on a clear spring night, I looked up at the sky and a shower of memories descended. I suddenly remembered my childhood awe at the wonders of space.
That night I was inspired to write my first book, How Much Is a Million? Now, almost 50 books later, I spend much of my time finding unusual, whimsical ways to make math and science come alive for kids and teachers, both through my writing, and through speaking at schools and conferences. I also write science articles for magazines, especially Smithsonian, and to do the research I've made exciting trips to some of the more remote corners of several continents. I've been to Africa to study hippos, to South America to visit an indigenous tribe living in the rain forest, and to far northern Scotland to track illegal egg collectors. But I still love the land outside my door in northern California, and the same distant stars that inspired me years ago.
from http://www.davidschwartz.com/about_da...
But science and math weren't my only fascinations: I also loved bicycles, baseball, boats…and ice cream. Years later, on a clear spring night, I looked up at the sky and a shower of memories descended. I suddenly remembered my childhood awe at the wonders of space.
That night I was inspired to write my first book, How Much Is a Million? Now, almost 50 books later, I spend much of my time finding unusual, whimsical ways to make math and science come alive for kids and teachers, both through my writing, and through speaking at schools and conferences. I also write science articles for magazines, especially Smithsonian, and to do the research I've made exciting trips to some of the more remote corners of several continents. I've been to Africa to study hippos, to South America to visit an indigenous tribe living in the rain forest, and to far northern Scotland to track illegal egg collectors. But I still love the land outside my door in northern California, and the same distant stars that inspired me years ago.
from http://www.davidschwartz.com/about_da...
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 58 reviews
October 30, 2020
the photos in this book are an easy five stars. watch a jack-o-lantern transform from whimsical holiday porch decoration into flattened, mold covered slime disk in 32 easy pages! it kind of makes me wonder why we don't carve the jack-o-lanterns weeks in advance, because they are way cooler and spookier after all the insects and mold have had their way with them. and i suppose it would discourage mini-hooligans from stealing and smashing them, because kids don't wanna touch this - it is too disturbing.
no one wants to eat funsize snickers with gooey mold-fingers.
the words are less fun. the book seems unable to decide whether it wants to be scientific or fun-for-kids. the first pages, in the voice of the jack-o-lantern are like a sort-of-poem, but it is very clunky: Here I stand, bright with light, proud and round. Tonight is my glory night. Call me Jack. My flame is spent. No more do I glow. Back to the garden I go.
and then later, Of all the strange things growing on this pumpkin, I am the strangest. I am a slime mold. I started as a single cell, tumbling through the soil. Every once in a while I divided in half so there were two of "me." Soon there were lots and lots of us. Then we did the oddest thing: we joined to become one living creature that spread out in squiggly yellow arms connected like a net. The net, called a "plasmodium," began to move.
which is much less cutesy.
so it's a little uneven.
i like the idea that all the worms and mice and fungi are given a voice as they turn this one pumpkin into mulch - it is a great idea for a book, and it is fascinating to watch this pumpkin decay more and more on every page. nature is super-gross.
the winner for "best photo" is this one:
and "best voice" is the voice of the fly:
My keen fly nose smells what I am looking for - dead fish, rotten meat, dog doo - the stinkier, the better! A rotting pumpkin is perfect. I taste it with my feet. You're gonna love hearing how I eat. I vomit on the pumpkin flesh. My vomit dissolves pumpkin nutrients so I can lap them up. A delicious, nutritious morning smoothie!
what kid isn't going to love this?????
come to my blog!
no one wants to eat funsize snickers with gooey mold-fingers.
the words are less fun. the book seems unable to decide whether it wants to be scientific or fun-for-kids. the first pages, in the voice of the jack-o-lantern are like a sort-of-poem, but it is very clunky: Here I stand, bright with light, proud and round. Tonight is my glory night. Call me Jack. My flame is spent. No more do I glow. Back to the garden I go.
and then later, Of all the strange things growing on this pumpkin, I am the strangest. I am a slime mold. I started as a single cell, tumbling through the soil. Every once in a while I divided in half so there were two of "me." Soon there were lots and lots of us. Then we did the oddest thing: we joined to become one living creature that spread out in squiggly yellow arms connected like a net. The net, called a "plasmodium," began to move.
which is much less cutesy.
so it's a little uneven.
i like the idea that all the worms and mice and fungi are given a voice as they turn this one pumpkin into mulch - it is a great idea for a book, and it is fascinating to watch this pumpkin decay more and more on every page. nature is super-gross.
the winner for "best photo" is this one:
and "best voice" is the voice of the fly:
My keen fly nose smells what I am looking for - dead fish, rotten meat, dog doo - the stinkier, the better! A rotting pumpkin is perfect. I taste it with my feet. You're gonna love hearing how I eat. I vomit on the pumpkin flesh. My vomit dissolves pumpkin nutrients so I can lap them up. A delicious, nutritious morning smoothie!
what kid isn't going to love this?????
come to my blog!
October 31, 2015
Every October you walk into your bookstores and your libraries and you see the overwhelming swath of seasonal fare pelt you from every side. Apples and pumpkins, scarecrows and black cats. You begin to wonder if it's possible to do anything that's both new and autumnal anymore. Then you turn around and you see the book most likely to make you back away in true, abject fear. Rotten Pumpkin: A Rotten Tale in 15 Voices is basically what you'd get if you took Paul Fleischman's Joyful Noise Poems for Two Voices or Laura Amy Schlitz's Good Masters! Sweet Ladies!: Voices from a Medieval Village and turned those bugs and people into molds, slugs, and other creepy crawlies. I have never been so overwhelmed with a desire to wash my hands after reading a book as I have reading Schwartz's latest. That's a compliment, by the way.
It doesn't start off all that badly. On Halloween night a triumphant little pumpkin merrily grins at the reader. "Here I stand, bright with light, proud and round. Tonight is my glory night. Call me Jack." Its hubris doesn't last long. The first unwelcome visitor is a chomping chewing mouse. The next a squirrel. Then come the slugs, a fly, and most dramatically the black rot. Once the rot's set in it's just a question of how quickly Jack will disintegrate. Schwartz fills his story with plenty of useful information, like the fact that low temperatures don't slow most of the fungi that eat pumpkins. Or the strange nature of the plasmodium and its odd ways. By the end we see how life begins anew, thanks in large part to the creatures that help with decomposition. A glossary of terms and useful "Classroom Investigations" are found at the end of the book.
When we think of books told in a variety of different voices, our minds instantly think of some of the loftier titles for kids out there. Award winners. Collections of monologues. That sort of thing. So I think it would be particularly refreshing for kids to embody the characters in this book. I'm suddenly envisioning the world's grossest school play, wherein our hero, the pumpkin, is eaten and devoured by his/her classmates, piece by piece. The characters, if you can call them that, aren't delineated in the text by anything more than their images. Sections run together without chapter titles. I was also a bit sad that the photos were separate from the text, when it would have been nice to see the two integrated. That said, I did like the writing. It does a good job of telling a story, conveying some really interesting factual information, and grossing you out. Surprisingly, this is the book that actually explained Penicillium to me better than anything else I've ever read. Not being much of a scientist I confess that I'd always been a bit fuzzy (no pun intended) on what precisely it is that Penicillium does. I know the story of how it was discovered, but not why it works. Now I do.
It's hard for me to pinpoint what the most disgusting moment of this book really is. Was it the title page with its leering jack-o-lantern leering, bedecked with a black mustache of pure mold? Was it instead the yeast swimming in the fermenting pumpkin, an almost peach colored jelly packed with white rods? No. For me, without a doubt, the honor lies squarely on the spores. We have photographer Dwight Kuhn to thank for that. Having worked on "more than 140 children's books on nature and biology", Kuhn had his work cut out for him when it came to some of the shots in this book. The squirrel was keen, the mouse divine, and the slugs sluggy, but the shot that impressed me the most was the extreme close-up of the fly. *shudder* You'd have to see it for yourself to understand why.
Who says the scariest Halloween books for kids are strictly fictional? With Rotten Pumpkin you've all the thrills of a typical horror story, laden with facts along the way. The hero at the top of his game. The downfall. The insidious, frankly disgusting, forces that eat away at him until he's nothing left but a blackened husk of his former self. Oh, it's thrilling stuff. With applications in the classroom, in the home, and on the stage, there's nowhere this rotting corpse of a pumpkin doesn't belong. So this holiday season don't bother handing the kids yet another copy of Scary Stories to Tell In the Dark when they beg you for child-friendly horror fare. Just load them down with a little Rotten Pumpkin. Guaranteed to make hypochondriacs out of even the stiffest souls.
For ages 4-8.
It doesn't start off all that badly. On Halloween night a triumphant little pumpkin merrily grins at the reader. "Here I stand, bright with light, proud and round. Tonight is my glory night. Call me Jack." Its hubris doesn't last long. The first unwelcome visitor is a chomping chewing mouse. The next a squirrel. Then come the slugs, a fly, and most dramatically the black rot. Once the rot's set in it's just a question of how quickly Jack will disintegrate. Schwartz fills his story with plenty of useful information, like the fact that low temperatures don't slow most of the fungi that eat pumpkins. Or the strange nature of the plasmodium and its odd ways. By the end we see how life begins anew, thanks in large part to the creatures that help with decomposition. A glossary of terms and useful "Classroom Investigations" are found at the end of the book.
When we think of books told in a variety of different voices, our minds instantly think of some of the loftier titles for kids out there. Award winners. Collections of monologues. That sort of thing. So I think it would be particularly refreshing for kids to embody the characters in this book. I'm suddenly envisioning the world's grossest school play, wherein our hero, the pumpkin, is eaten and devoured by his/her classmates, piece by piece. The characters, if you can call them that, aren't delineated in the text by anything more than their images. Sections run together without chapter titles. I was also a bit sad that the photos were separate from the text, when it would have been nice to see the two integrated. That said, I did like the writing. It does a good job of telling a story, conveying some really interesting factual information, and grossing you out. Surprisingly, this is the book that actually explained Penicillium to me better than anything else I've ever read. Not being much of a scientist I confess that I'd always been a bit fuzzy (no pun intended) on what precisely it is that Penicillium does. I know the story of how it was discovered, but not why it works. Now I do.
It's hard for me to pinpoint what the most disgusting moment of this book really is. Was it the title page with its leering jack-o-lantern leering, bedecked with a black mustache of pure mold? Was it instead the yeast swimming in the fermenting pumpkin, an almost peach colored jelly packed with white rods? No. For me, without a doubt, the honor lies squarely on the spores. We have photographer Dwight Kuhn to thank for that. Having worked on "more than 140 children's books on nature and biology", Kuhn had his work cut out for him when it came to some of the shots in this book. The squirrel was keen, the mouse divine, and the slugs sluggy, but the shot that impressed me the most was the extreme close-up of the fly. *shudder* You'd have to see it for yourself to understand why.
Who says the scariest Halloween books for kids are strictly fictional? With Rotten Pumpkin you've all the thrills of a typical horror story, laden with facts along the way. The hero at the top of his game. The downfall. The insidious, frankly disgusting, forces that eat away at him until he's nothing left but a blackened husk of his former self. Oh, it's thrilling stuff. With applications in the classroom, in the home, and on the stage, there's nowhere this rotting corpse of a pumpkin doesn't belong. So this holiday season don't bother handing the kids yet another copy of Scary Stories to Tell In the Dark when they beg you for child-friendly horror fare. Just load them down with a little Rotten Pumpkin. Guaranteed to make hypochondriacs out of even the stiffest souls.
For ages 4-8.
July 17, 2014
THIS IS NOT A BOOK FOR THE EASILY SQUICKED
I just wanted to get that out there and clear. The prose is serviceable. This book is all about how a jack o' lantern is reduced to compost, through the assistance of mice, squirrels, slugs, bugs, molds, and fungi. The photos are awesome if you enjoy seeing a mold up close. It makes me want to document the decay of our carved pumpkins, day by day.
Perfect for those who enjoy the science of grossness.
Library copy.
I just wanted to get that out there and clear. The prose is serviceable. This book is all about how a jack o' lantern is reduced to compost, through the assistance of mice, squirrels, slugs, bugs, molds, and fungi. The photos are awesome if you enjoy seeing a mold up close. It makes me want to document the decay of our carved pumpkins, day by day.
Perfect for those who enjoy the science of grossness.
Library copy.
September 30, 2013
A dynamic mix of story and nonfiction, this book follows the life of a pumpkin. He has his shining moment as a jack-o-lantern lit for Halloween, but then is put into the compost. That is where the story gets interesting. First he is chewed on by mice, squirrels, slugs and vomited on by flies. Now he looks a lot different and has fungi growing. The various molds introduce themselves, explaining what they do, including the fascinating Penicillium. Sow bugs, earthworms, slime mold and yeast work on the pumpkin too. It is left as just a pile of seeds and little else. Until spring arrives!
Schwartz shows readers just how fascinating science is with his in-depth descriptions of the decomposition process. Children will adore the explanation of how flies taste and eat, the process of earthworm poop, and all of the molds seen up close. But this book goes far beyond the gross and takes the reader right through the entire process, detailing it with interesting moments throughout.
The photographs by Kuhn are particularly useful in a book like this. Capturing the changing face of the pumpkin as it molds over adds real interest visually to the title. At the same time, the close up images of yeasts and slime mold are grossly gripping.
Perfect for autumn and Halloween, this book will have kids looking at their slumping pumpkins with new eyes. Appropriate for ages 6-9.
Schwartz shows readers just how fascinating science is with his in-depth descriptions of the decomposition process. Children will adore the explanation of how flies taste and eat, the process of earthworm poop, and all of the molds seen up close. But this book goes far beyond the gross and takes the reader right through the entire process, detailing it with interesting moments throughout.
The photographs by Kuhn are particularly useful in a book like this. Capturing the changing face of the pumpkin as it molds over adds real interest visually to the title. At the same time, the close up images of yeasts and slime mold are grossly gripping.
Perfect for autumn and Halloween, this book will have kids looking at their slumping pumpkins with new eyes. Appropriate for ages 6-9.
July 4, 2013
Icky Gross Fun! As a school librarian, I have learned that gross out factor can have great appeal for a book and this one does not disappoint.
David M. Schwartz and Dwight Kuhn take us through the decomposition of a Halloween pumpkin. As someone who has left a pumpkin out too long and had to deal with the mushiness afterward, I found it truly fascinating to actually see up close what is going on. Schwartz and Kuhn start with the mice and squirrels that will feed on your pumpkin and go all the way through to the very last slime mold, not leaving out any slug or bacteria along the way. Schwartz’s text is told through the point of view of the creatures and things that are breaking down the pumpkin. This adds a great level of humor as the earthworm tells you he is not lowly but high and mighty. Kuhn’s photographs show, in crystal detail, every sticky, slimy, moldy step along the way. He even includes microscopic views, giving you a close up look at some of the smaller “eaters” of the pumpkin.
This book was wonderfully informative and excellently grotesque at the same time. Then at the back it even includes a glossary and classroom investigation suggestions that you can try. 5/5 stars.
David M. Schwartz and Dwight Kuhn take us through the decomposition of a Halloween pumpkin. As someone who has left a pumpkin out too long and had to deal with the mushiness afterward, I found it truly fascinating to actually see up close what is going on. Schwartz and Kuhn start with the mice and squirrels that will feed on your pumpkin and go all the way through to the very last slime mold, not leaving out any slug or bacteria along the way. Schwartz’s text is told through the point of view of the creatures and things that are breaking down the pumpkin. This adds a great level of humor as the earthworm tells you he is not lowly but high and mighty. Kuhn’s photographs show, in crystal detail, every sticky, slimy, moldy step along the way. He even includes microscopic views, giving you a close up look at some of the smaller “eaters” of the pumpkin.
This book was wonderfully informative and excellently grotesque at the same time. Then at the back it even includes a glossary and classroom investigation suggestions that you can try. 5/5 stars.
April 29, 2013
After Halloween, a Jack-o'Lantern no longer takes its place as the center of attention. Unloved and forgotten by humans, the fruit begines to rot over the subsequent pages. The photographs and text are filled with fascinating facts and images as a mouse, a squirrel, and slugs munch on the pumpkin, leaving places for mold to grown. By the time various fungi have had their way with the pumpkin, its seeds spill into the garden soil, possibly resulting in another Jack O'Latern in a few months. What a cool idea for a book!
October 20, 2018
Educational, graphic (in a gross, decomposing way), and surprisingly sad! For its targeted age-group, Rotten Pumpkin is just the right amount of exposition and explanation, the color photos are all perfectly gross for children of that age, and everything is easy to follow-along. However, everything is written in the first-person, and while the narration of the animals and fungi that are doing their deeds to the pumpkin, hearing the pumpkin itself discuss its uselessness and dissolution was surprisingly sad to hear. The book tries to enlighten that mood by the end, but that effort falls flat.
October 21, 2019
This is my favorite "Halloween" book, but it's actually a great book to read any time of the year. Yes, it's rotten. Yes, it's gross. But it's also beautiful in its telling of the life cycle of a pumpkin. Thank you, decomposers, for the hard work you do! "The molds and rots, the earthworms and sowbugs, the many fungi, yeast, and bacteria. Even flies, birds, squirrels, mice, and slugs do their part. With decomposers working, working, working non-stop, the earth is a fruitful place." This book is a warm fuzzy (of the moldy kind). Highly recommended for kids who want to know everything about everything, the grosser the better.
May 20, 2022
The photos in this book are absolutely awesome (disgusting, but awesome), showing the life cycle of the pumpkin from jack o' lantern to mush to seed and sprout, to pumpkin again. But in the middle, there, there are also mice, earthworms, flies, several kinds of mold, spores, etc. that show up to explain what they do to the pumpkin too. Informative in a gruesome way, I'm sure there are readers out there who would enjoy this book.
September 12, 2019
I liked how different characters got to speak about their experiences with the pumpkin as it rotted. The pictures are great too, really gross but engaging. I think it's a good illustration to show decomposing and how living things are connected.
March 30, 2021
This book is awesome! We learned about all the critters that help a pumpkin decompose. We learned why the carved pumpkin breaks down waaaaaay faster than a whole pumpkin (and we observed this back in October-December).
This is a good book to read in conjunction with Sophie's Squash.
This is a good book to read in conjunction with Sophie's Squash.
October 21, 2022
This is one of the greatest picture books EVER. For natural science loving, "but why" asking, yucky yuck oogling kids and parents - we are completely obsessed with this book. And now we have a new family tradition - trying to replicate this rotten pumpkin.
August 20, 2017
good way to teach decomposition
October 28, 2018
What happens to your jack 'o lantern after Halloween is over and it has been left outside to rot. Amazing science, but photos that might've made my stomach turn :)
June 20, 2019
This will be a fun one for science class.
October 3, 2019
Don't read this book during dinner like I did. It was absolutely disgusting--the picture of Fusarium rot and slime mold on the pumpkin especially!=) But it was scientifically sound.
January 7, 2021
Gross, fascinating, wonderful. Perfect for homeschool science.
August 15, 2022
Interesting concept and great ick factor with the photographs, but the actual text leaves something to be desired.
November 6, 2023
The perfect companion book to Pumpkin Jack!
June 2, 2013
More reviews at Mrs. ReaderPants.
SUMMARY: Told in 15 voices--animals and insects that feed on the pumpkin, the molds that grow on it, and the pumpkin itself--this picture book tells the story of what happens to a Jack-O-Lantern after Halloween is over. Includes full-color photos.
REVIEW: A couple of years ago, we had a pumpkin carving/decorating contest at my school. Students and faculty participated, and our eighth grade math classes drew on and decorated Halloween pumpkins to experiment with geometry and measurement. The finished pumpkins are on display in the library, and there were about 60 pumpkins, both carved and uncarved, in the library when all was said and done. Some students brought their pumpkins in a week or more before the deadline. After the "voting day," we had the pumpkins in the library until the students come pick them up. I gave them maybe a week to pick them up before I gave them away to one of our science teachers, who was excited to get them for just this reason.
This book would be PERFECT to share with students while we have the pumpkins in the library. The carved ones always grow fuzzy, white and green mold inside--sometimes quite a bit of it if they were brought in early and never picked up. The kids loved looking at the moldy ones!
In my middle school library, I am more likely to use this book for the photos than for the text. The "15 voices" format works better for some pictures than others. Some are more informative (the penicillin, slime mold, earmuffs, the fly), and others just didn't really make sense (the mouse, the squirrel). Personally, I would tell the students the text rather than actually read it aloud. Still, a great choice for science classes!
THE BOTTOM LINE: A gorgeous, colorful picture book perfect for elementary or middle school science classes, especially post-Halloween. The photos are absolutely beautiful!
STATUS IN MY LIBRARY: It's not out until August 2013, but we'll be getting it!
READALIKES: How to Carve Freakishly Cool Pumpkins (Schuette)
RATING BREAKDOWN:
Overall: 4/5
Creativity: 4/5
Engrossing: 3/5--photos are better than text
Writing: 3/5
Appeal to teens: 4/5
Informative: 4/5
CONTENT:
Language: none
Sexuality: none
Violence: none
Drugs/Alcohol: none
December 26, 2022
Not all kids like reading non-fiction and I know when I was in elementary school I had no drive to read them. So I made a promise to myself to read my kids non-fiction books at a young age in hopes to help them learn about the world in real life and in books. So we picked up this book, "Rotten Pumpkin" by David M. Schwartz from the library. I myself have read this book while student teaching so I knew what was going to happen. My three kids did not and were grossed out. Bahaha.
So in this book they go through the whole life cycle of a pumpkin using different characters. I consider this book realistic non-fiction. While it has all the facts we know pumpkins don't really talk as well. So in this book you see Jack slowly becoming compost with actual photos by Dwight Kuhn. I really enjoyed this book and all the facts that it had. I also love how they used pictures instead of illustrations because it shows the true story of what is happening to the pumpkin. My seven year old sat through it and was grossed out but enjoyed the pictures and the text. My five year old only enjoyed the pictures as he likes gross things but found the text too boring of his view. My three year old it didn't hold his attention. I recommend reading this from Kindergarten up and then take them to a pumpkin patch. Maybe even getting a pumpkin to do your own science experiment.
So in this book they go through the whole life cycle of a pumpkin using different characters. I consider this book realistic non-fiction. While it has all the facts we know pumpkins don't really talk as well. So in this book you see Jack slowly becoming compost with actual photos by Dwight Kuhn. I really enjoyed this book and all the facts that it had. I also love how they used pictures instead of illustrations because it shows the true story of what is happening to the pumpkin. My seven year old sat through it and was grossed out but enjoyed the pictures and the text. My five year old only enjoyed the pictures as he likes gross things but found the text too boring of his view. My three year old it didn't hold his attention. I recommend reading this from Kindergarten up and then take them to a pumpkin patch. Maybe even getting a pumpkin to do your own science experiment.
October 30, 2013
This is a wonderful collection of narratives from the various decomposers who attack a pumpkin after (and sometimes before!) Halloween. We've seen this many times ourselves, so we loved the different actors who have their way with this gourd.
It reminded me of a project that my youngest daughter's preschool teacher conducted several years ago - she put chunks of pumpkin in a sealed jar and the class watched it slowly decompose over the course of a few months. Gross, but very cool.
Overall, it's a short, but very informative and entertaining book and we really enjoyed reading it together. Since we haven't carved our pumpkins yet, we should be able to hold off the invaders at least until Halloween. But once we've carved them, they start resembling the cover photo within a couple of days.
We've really enjoyed reading David M. Schwartz's books and we will certainly look for more of them at our local library.
It reminded me of a project that my youngest daughter's preschool teacher conducted several years ago - she put chunks of pumpkin in a sealed jar and the class watched it slowly decompose over the course of a few months. Gross, but very cool.
Overall, it's a short, but very informative and entertaining book and we really enjoyed reading it together. Since we haven't carved our pumpkins yet, we should be able to hold off the invaders at least until Halloween. But once we've carved them, they start resembling the cover photo within a couple of days.
We've really enjoyed reading David M. Schwartz's books and we will certainly look for more of them at our local library.
January 21, 2014
Unpaged
Grade Level: 5th grade & up
Summary:
This is a book about a rotten pumpkin written in 15 different voices; the voices include the pumpkin, all the animals that are eating the rotten pumpkin (mouse, squirrel, slug, etc.), the mold that forms in the pumpkin, and various other voices. The book is about what happens after you have carved your Halloween pumpkin and it is left outside to rot. It goes into a lot of scientific terms so kids really learn about how the pumpkin breaks down and basically disintegrates back into the earth.
Comments & Recommendations:
I thought this was a brilliantly written book because it keeps a person's attention by being written in 15 different voices. Have you ever had a earthworm talk to you? I never have and take my word for it, never call it a "lowly" earthworm because it will get very offended! I think students that love science will love this book. It comes with a glossary in the back of the book that breaks down difficult terms for the readers.
4 out of 5 stars
Reviewed by: Jen T.
Grade Level: 5th grade & up
Summary:
This is a book about a rotten pumpkin written in 15 different voices; the voices include the pumpkin, all the animals that are eating the rotten pumpkin (mouse, squirrel, slug, etc.), the mold that forms in the pumpkin, and various other voices. The book is about what happens after you have carved your Halloween pumpkin and it is left outside to rot. It goes into a lot of scientific terms so kids really learn about how the pumpkin breaks down and basically disintegrates back into the earth.
Comments & Recommendations:
I thought this was a brilliantly written book because it keeps a person's attention by being written in 15 different voices. Have you ever had a earthworm talk to you? I never have and take my word for it, never call it a "lowly" earthworm because it will get very offended! I think students that love science will love this book. It comes with a glossary in the back of the book that breaks down difficult terms for the readers.
4 out of 5 stars
Reviewed by: Jen T.
September 13, 2013
This is the perfect book to introduce an ecosystem that is self contained, or to explain how nature is dependent on various life forms. Rotten Pumpkin begins with Halloween night and a carved pumpkin in all its glory. However, after the night of jack-o-lanterns it is tossed out to the garden and there it begins its decay.
The story continues with the mice finding it first and nibbling on the carved out pumpkin, the squirrel carries off a seed and the slug gets his turn at eating and making holes for mold spores to grow. The fly, black rot, and various molds all take their turn at decomposing the pumpkin and the progression toward decay continues with 15 organisms in all explaining nature’s process at recycling and dependency.
This is a quick recycling story that kids will love because it is so icky! Children will be disgusted and grossed out and read it again and again.
The story continues with the mice finding it first and nibbling on the carved out pumpkin, the squirrel carries off a seed and the slug gets his turn at eating and making holes for mold spores to grow. The fly, black rot, and various molds all take their turn at decomposing the pumpkin and the progression toward decay continues with 15 organisms in all explaining nature’s process at recycling and dependency.
This is a quick recycling story that kids will love because it is so icky! Children will be disgusted and grossed out and read it again and again.
May 30, 2013
A brief, but candid review. The text for this was pretty technical -- there are so many kinds of mold! And some big words about decomposition! And I didn't understand them all and don't think a kid necessarily would! BUT, the pictures of the rotting pumpkin are priceless, no holds barred, totally gross, and I was fascinated by how penicillin mold will destroy other molds. And slimmmme molllld. Gross. A good post-Halloween read, even if some re-phrasing, simplyifing of the text for younger readers might be necessary -- or for budding science geeks, you know, it could be just the thing. Thank you NetGalley for the gross and lovely memories.
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February 13, 2015
ROTTEN PUMPKIN: A ROTTEN TALE IN 15 VOICES
While doing a bit of research, this book arrived through the library. I had no idea what it could possibly be about. I only know the cover was pretty dang ugly!
It turns out this is a book that, through easy-to-understand text and very clear, detailed pictures, explains to us the cycle of life of a pumpkin (and I would think any other fruit?). It begins as a jack-o-lantern, the pumpkin having been gutted and carved, then left on the ground to gradually go through the MANY steps of decomposure through to a seed taking root.
Fascinating!
It turns out this is a book that, through easy-to-understand text and very clear, detailed pictures, explains to us the cycle of life of a pumpkin (and I would think any other fruit?). It begins as a jack-o-lantern, the pumpkin having been gutted and carved, then left on the ground to gradually go through the MANY steps of decomposure through to a seed taking root.
Fascinating!
July 29, 2013
I liked what this book was doing but I found it boring. The paragraphs are far to disconnected to really create an interesting story. It was very sciencey which is fine except it didn't feel like a story and the title of the book gives you the impression it will be a story. I don't think it's a bad book but I feel that the age group that it seems to target won't find it enjoyable. The pictures are great if your child is interested in molds and decomposition.
October 10, 2013
Great! My nine year old really enjoyed it. It would be a super read aloud if you are one of those people that can do lots of different voices. I tried, and my efforts were appreciated. The photos were great and I loved that it was technical and detailed enough to teach even older kids. I appreciated the ideas at the back for setting up experiments on pumpkin decomposition ourselves. I think we will be doing that!
January 21, 2014
This is a book about a rotten pumpkin written in 15 different voices; the voices include the pumpkin, all the animals that are eating the rotten pumpkin (mouse, squirrel, slug, etc.), the mold that forms in the pumpkin, and various other voices. The book is about what happens after you have carved your Halloween pumpkin and it is left outside to rot. It goes into a lot of scientific terms so kids really learn about how the pumpkin breaks down and basically disintegrates back into the earth.
September 6, 2013
This is a fabulous demonstration of how decomposition works. Various animals, insects and molds work together to break a pumpkin down and return every bit of it to the earth. Especially clever is how the author writes from the perspective of each of these creatures to explain their part in the process. Fabulous photography make it even more intriguing and educational.
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