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Pumpkin Light
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
November 3, 2014
I liked the story, but the writing was awful. Attack of the adverbs. And the punctuation. W. T. F. I would assume a published writer would have at least cursory knowledge of proper punctuation. I'm hardly the grammar police, but when it is so bad that meaning becomes unclear = problem. I would also assume an editor somewhere during the process would have suggested a couple necessary, well placed commas here or there. In both cases, I am clearly assuming incorrectly.
November 2, 2016
This is an entertaining, but slightly spooky story about a boy who loves to draw jack-o'-lanterns. The narrative has some pretty creepy parts, but isn't all that scary and the ending is very nice.
The illustrations are very colorful and seem somewhat abstract in places. Overall, it's a good story to read aloud at Halloween and we enjoyed reading it together.
The illustrations are very colorful and seem somewhat abstract in places. Overall, it's a good story to read aloud at Halloween and we enjoyed reading it together.
November 2, 2016
The summary of this book was really original. I thought it was weird at first, but decided to check the book out anyway and give it a chance. When I read it again it grew on me and really sounded like a magical story. I liked the cover, how it look so enchanting with all of the smiling faces of the pumpkins and the boy’s hair blowing in the wind as he draws them.
The first page with the name of the book was so pretty! There was a tree with orange leaves, and brown rolling fields with the sun and its rays peeking over the top, and pumpkins and their green vines on the ground. I really liked the artwork.
Angus as a baby was so ugly! He had lines where he didn’t need them that made him look a little haggard and old. The beginning was a little overdone, what with talk of the sun like a shining pumpkin and the light filling Angus and staying with him his whole life, and feeling like he’d been hatched from a pumpkin like a chick from an egg. Very odd thought to have. The mom’s and dad’s skin was scratchy and marked with places that seemed to glow from a light within. It looked like they had a light source inside themselves, making places on their skin shine. One pumpkin was split open in half and I wondered why. Did that mean an animal ate it or something?
I liked the picture of the jack-o-lantern on the table, its back to us as he drew, so that we saw through the pumpkin. The boy’s face was lit up from the light source. I thought it was a little wrong though how he loved drawing and painting as much as he loved his parents. There was an inconsistency with Angus’s story. On Halloween day in the afternoon he would run to the store to see the pumpkins in the window. Then, some lines later, the author said he would stand all day. That was a contradiction, because if he arrived in the afternoon, he couldn’t have been there all day long. And I found it highly unrealistic that parents would let their child stand all day, or even all afternoon as the author originally said, and into the night, in town, all by himself. No parent would leave their child alone like that. That would mean he missed supper and by the time he was heading home the moon was high in the sky so it would have been pretty late for a kid to get home.
The word engrossed was a really bad choice to use in a children’s book. Kids do not possess a vocabulary like that and would be totally stumped. It would cause them to not know what was going on in the story. Authors really need to realize what audience they’re writing for and use their readers’ vocabulary, not their own. You have to use words kids know.
The page where Angus is running home was hard to figure out. He looked like a little old man instead of a 10 year old boy. It didn’t look like he was running either. It looked like he was standing and then running legs had been superimposed onto his body, because the top half of his body was so upright. There were boys waiting for him behind the fence, one holding onto a stick with a skull on it, wearing a top hat and a really long scarf flying up into the sky. The other boy I assume dressed as a vampire, but his fangs were so long they looked like snake fangs instead of plastic vampire ones, and he seemed to be holding onto a ghost or something, couldn’t really tell what was going on there. The leaves blowing in the wind didn’t so much look like leaves. They were so big and one was like a bowl in the middle, looked like you could drink out of it. Their taunts were rather lame, calling him a pumpkin man. Wouldn’t they call him pumpkin boy?
His pants looked so baggy and his shoes so big, like he was wearing bell bottoms in the 70s.
His parents decide as a punishment for coming home late that he can’t have pumpkin pie, which makes sense, but his dad says he can’t hang his pictures up. Is that really a punishment?? The daydream he had was so strange, of moon pumpkins floating across to the barn…I think there could have been a better imagining. Why would he picture white pumpkins floating from his window to the barn, like what would be the point of that? Then, all of a sudden, he ends up in the barn. And it's explained by saying he couldn't have told you how it happened. It was way too convenient for the author to have Angus all of a sudden appear in the barn loft. That was just taking it too far, and it was obvious he did it just so Angus would be able to see his mom set a pie in the window, because if he had stayed in his bedroom he wouldn’t have been able to see it. Very see-through and way too convenient to do that. I did like the face of the scarecrow, the crow’s feet around the eyes and the jagged-lined mouth, and the stalks of corn.
The lines “Sometimes he thought he could almost hear sounds from deep within the pumpkin. As if messages from the sun and the moon somehow entered through the pumpkin’s stem to rest among the silent seeds” are way too deep. That would go right over kids’ heads. They don’t think that deeply and wouldn’t be able to process that.
The field of pumpkins as his parents mourn his absence was so pretty. The illustrator really excelled at the pumpkins. They were so full of color.
It's amazing how complacent they seem. Their son is missing and they're sitting in the pumpkin patch like I guess he ran away. Wouldn't they be running around like crazy having a search party to find him? What parent just accepts their child is missing and does nothing about it?
His dad does suggest he might have been taken across the fields by an angry spirit, which was random because this book hadn't established that there were angry spirits. And I doubt a mom would say "At least we have him" in regards to a dog that suddenly showed up at the same time their son was missing. I'm sure a stray dog wouldn't even come close to filling the void of a child that went missing with no warning. Senseless things like this took away from the story.
And it was cute how once Angus is in the form of the dog, he bites his mom’s skirt and pulls her out of the house to the magic pumpkin that needs to be carved, and one of his paws is on her shoe. The dog was so pretty as he’s showing her the pumpkin in the loft, full of different shades of color. I liked how he was done.
The paragraphs became way too big. I think kids would lose interest with all of those words on each page.
It wasn’t explained how the parents knew his name was Autumn. The scarecrow had named him that, and he was the only one that knew. There’s no way the parents knew to call him that. Major flaw. And he didn’t even need a name. It was weird for the scarecrow to even name him after turning him into a dog as punishment. I don’t think kids would know what shafts of light are, or sunbeams. And it was a bad idea to let readers see him turned back into a boy and the pumpkin carved before we’d even read that had happened. On the left side of the page were the words, but you couldn’t help but see the right side of the page with Angus standing as a human once more. I can’t stand when pictures give away things before we’ve read it.
One second they're standing in what is clearly the kitchen, he had the door open behind him, and it was said that she rolled the pumpkin into the kitchen. The mom decided instead of making a pie with it she'll carve it up like her husband used to do. And that's when he came back. Then the next page he can't see because the light is so bright, and then he sees his parents in his room hanging up his drawings. How did they get in his room? They were just in the kitchen, and his dad hadn't even been there. Very convenient writing on the author's part. Things didn't flow together and he made them bounce around to whatever he needed them to do.
And where is the reaction of the mother that the dog that had just been getting her to get the pumpkin suddenly transformed into her lost son? There was no reaction whatsoever to having a dog in the kitchen suddenly change into her son. The story was long in places it shouldn’t be, and skipped out on details that needed to be included.
It was quite a jolt to the system to flip the page and see an old Angus, still painting pumpkins as an old man. His favorite painting was that of a dog sleeping by a pumpkin, but it didn't look like a painting. It looked like an open window out onto the night scene of the dog and pumpkin.
The first page with the name of the book was so pretty! There was a tree with orange leaves, and brown rolling fields with the sun and its rays peeking over the top, and pumpkins and their green vines on the ground. I really liked the artwork.
Angus as a baby was so ugly! He had lines where he didn’t need them that made him look a little haggard and old. The beginning was a little overdone, what with talk of the sun like a shining pumpkin and the light filling Angus and staying with him his whole life, and feeling like he’d been hatched from a pumpkin like a chick from an egg. Very odd thought to have. The mom’s and dad’s skin was scratchy and marked with places that seemed to glow from a light within. It looked like they had a light source inside themselves, making places on their skin shine. One pumpkin was split open in half and I wondered why. Did that mean an animal ate it or something?
I liked the picture of the jack-o-lantern on the table, its back to us as he drew, so that we saw through the pumpkin. The boy’s face was lit up from the light source. I thought it was a little wrong though how he loved drawing and painting as much as he loved his parents. There was an inconsistency with Angus’s story. On Halloween day in the afternoon he would run to the store to see the pumpkins in the window. Then, some lines later, the author said he would stand all day. That was a contradiction, because if he arrived in the afternoon, he couldn’t have been there all day long. And I found it highly unrealistic that parents would let their child stand all day, or even all afternoon as the author originally said, and into the night, in town, all by himself. No parent would leave their child alone like that. That would mean he missed supper and by the time he was heading home the moon was high in the sky so it would have been pretty late for a kid to get home.
The word engrossed was a really bad choice to use in a children’s book. Kids do not possess a vocabulary like that and would be totally stumped. It would cause them to not know what was going on in the story. Authors really need to realize what audience they’re writing for and use their readers’ vocabulary, not their own. You have to use words kids know.
The page where Angus is running home was hard to figure out. He looked like a little old man instead of a 10 year old boy. It didn’t look like he was running either. It looked like he was standing and then running legs had been superimposed onto his body, because the top half of his body was so upright. There were boys waiting for him behind the fence, one holding onto a stick with a skull on it, wearing a top hat and a really long scarf flying up into the sky. The other boy I assume dressed as a vampire, but his fangs were so long they looked like snake fangs instead of plastic vampire ones, and he seemed to be holding onto a ghost or something, couldn’t really tell what was going on there. The leaves blowing in the wind didn’t so much look like leaves. They were so big and one was like a bowl in the middle, looked like you could drink out of it. Their taunts were rather lame, calling him a pumpkin man. Wouldn’t they call him pumpkin boy?
His pants looked so baggy and his shoes so big, like he was wearing bell bottoms in the 70s.
His parents decide as a punishment for coming home late that he can’t have pumpkin pie, which makes sense, but his dad says he can’t hang his pictures up. Is that really a punishment?? The daydream he had was so strange, of moon pumpkins floating across to the barn…I think there could have been a better imagining. Why would he picture white pumpkins floating from his window to the barn, like what would be the point of that? Then, all of a sudden, he ends up in the barn. And it's explained by saying he couldn't have told you how it happened. It was way too convenient for the author to have Angus all of a sudden appear in the barn loft. That was just taking it too far, and it was obvious he did it just so Angus would be able to see his mom set a pie in the window, because if he had stayed in his bedroom he wouldn’t have been able to see it. Very see-through and way too convenient to do that. I did like the face of the scarecrow, the crow’s feet around the eyes and the jagged-lined mouth, and the stalks of corn.
The lines “Sometimes he thought he could almost hear sounds from deep within the pumpkin. As if messages from the sun and the moon somehow entered through the pumpkin’s stem to rest among the silent seeds” are way too deep. That would go right over kids’ heads. They don’t think that deeply and wouldn’t be able to process that.
The field of pumpkins as his parents mourn his absence was so pretty. The illustrator really excelled at the pumpkins. They were so full of color.
It's amazing how complacent they seem. Their son is missing and they're sitting in the pumpkin patch like I guess he ran away. Wouldn't they be running around like crazy having a search party to find him? What parent just accepts their child is missing and does nothing about it?
His dad does suggest he might have been taken across the fields by an angry spirit, which was random because this book hadn't established that there were angry spirits. And I doubt a mom would say "At least we have him" in regards to a dog that suddenly showed up at the same time their son was missing. I'm sure a stray dog wouldn't even come close to filling the void of a child that went missing with no warning. Senseless things like this took away from the story.
And it was cute how once Angus is in the form of the dog, he bites his mom’s skirt and pulls her out of the house to the magic pumpkin that needs to be carved, and one of his paws is on her shoe. The dog was so pretty as he’s showing her the pumpkin in the loft, full of different shades of color. I liked how he was done.
The paragraphs became way too big. I think kids would lose interest with all of those words on each page.
It wasn’t explained how the parents knew his name was Autumn. The scarecrow had named him that, and he was the only one that knew. There’s no way the parents knew to call him that. Major flaw. And he didn’t even need a name. It was weird for the scarecrow to even name him after turning him into a dog as punishment. I don’t think kids would know what shafts of light are, or sunbeams. And it was a bad idea to let readers see him turned back into a boy and the pumpkin carved before we’d even read that had happened. On the left side of the page were the words, but you couldn’t help but see the right side of the page with Angus standing as a human once more. I can’t stand when pictures give away things before we’ve read it.
One second they're standing in what is clearly the kitchen, he had the door open behind him, and it was said that she rolled the pumpkin into the kitchen. The mom decided instead of making a pie with it she'll carve it up like her husband used to do. And that's when he came back. Then the next page he can't see because the light is so bright, and then he sees his parents in his room hanging up his drawings. How did they get in his room? They were just in the kitchen, and his dad hadn't even been there. Very convenient writing on the author's part. Things didn't flow together and he made them bounce around to whatever he needed them to do.
And where is the reaction of the mother that the dog that had just been getting her to get the pumpkin suddenly transformed into her lost son? There was no reaction whatsoever to having a dog in the kitchen suddenly change into her son. The story was long in places it shouldn’t be, and skipped out on details that needed to be included.
It was quite a jolt to the system to flip the page and see an old Angus, still painting pumpkins as an old man. His favorite painting was that of a dog sleeping by a pumpkin, but it didn't look like a painting. It looked like an open window out onto the night scene of the dog and pumpkin.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 8, 2009
Frank seemed to really like this book. He ask for it 4 or 5 times this week. I have to admit I thought it was a little weird.
November 3, 2016
It started out a little strange. This strange connection between him and pumpkins. He felt as though he had hatched from a pumpkin.There’s a cracked pumpkin as if he did come from one. It’s out in the field, which is literally right outside the overlarge window. It says the sun rose as a pumpkin, and as I look at it after finishing the story, the sun has been drawn like a pumpkin. Which is too much. A simple orange ball would have done.
In the beginning it seemed to be all about comparing love. He loved pumpkins almost as much as his parents. Then he loves drawing almost as much as pumpkins. It isn’t a competition of what he loves most.
Then there’s the owner of the general store, that loves pumpkins almost as much as Angus does. Here we go again with the competition stuff. The pumpkins were supposed to be in a window, but it’s weird to have shelving in front of a window like that. &then there’s this cat sleeping. Is it inside the window? Why does the wooden paneling not look like the bottom of the store?
In the scene of him running home, he looks like an old man! &he looks so funny running. Why do one of those guys have fangs??
I thought it was weird/stupid to say he couldn’t hang his pictures up, because he was late getting home. It’s weird how he only seemed to draw on Halloween day. &his dad seemed to carve jack-o-lanterns the day before Halloween day. Does he only draw pumpkins? Why can’t he draw other days of the year?
‘he soon felt tired and fell into a deep sleep.’ So how did it go to: ‘though he could not have told you how it happened, he found himself high up in the barn loft.’ Then he sees his mother set out a pie in the windowsill. But wasn’t it nighttime?
I know he was dreaming of pumpkins floating and going to the barn. So I thought he was still dreaming when he suddenly ends up in front of his house and eats a pie, and then runs to the field to eat it. &a scarecrow comes to life. I thought this was a dream, and he’d eventually wake up and readers would realize it was all just a dream. So it was surprising what happened next.
The story got weird when the scarecrow turned him into a dog. &is so mad over the fact that he ate pie after being told not to. It wasn’t that big a deal.
‘Until a forgiving soul carves it’ sounded a little stupid. I wish it was worded better and sounded cooler.
When his dad said “maybe he’s been taken over the fields by an angry spirit” it was weird, because the story didn’t seem to be supernatural, or that his parents knew of or believed in the supernatural. It was a blasé thing to throw out there, and it wasn’t addressed after. The mom didn’t even comment on it.
In the scene where the parents are upset, and the dog shows up. The scarecrow is seen in the field, looking sad. It’s his fault in the first place! Now that I think on it, it’s none of his business. It was a way harsh punishment that really just hurt the parents. It’s the parents place to punish their kid.
Angus looks funny when he appears in the light after the pumpkin is carved. Very weird-looking smile.
‘Sometimes he thought he could almost hear sounds from deep within the pumpkin. As if messages from the sun and the moon somehow entered through the pumpkin’s stem to rest among the silent seeds.’ that didn't sound great, and I wish it had been cooler. you could have just said it a soul lived in the pumpkin, or there was magic inside. not moon&sun coming through the stem and into the seeds.
How did it go from his mom carving the pumpkin, to him appearing &then it mentions ‘the light was so bright Angus could not see’ so it seemed to be continuing the same scene and then it says he could see two figures& his parents were putting his pictures on the wall. I expected his mom to be really surprised and exclaim that their child had been the dog that’s been around for a year.&his dad to come running in. What a surprise that should have been! Well imagine my surprise when there was no surprise!
It was a huge oversight to not include his parents reactions.
The characters had the same colored outfits on the last page.
Omg he’s an old man! It’s supposed to be a picture of a dog, but it looks like a scene outside the window. In this book, paintings and drawings look like real life, like the people do. It has to be drawn in a way that makes it look like a painting or drawing. The ending isn’t right for an adult book. Idt they wanna see him old. it would be good for a young adult/adult novel.
Also, how did he know what he looked like as a dog that he was able to paint it? he would have had to see himself, or a picture of himself.
I like stories like that. It reminded me of East of the Sun, West of the Moon fairytale. Which I love.
When I finished the book, and looked back at the title, the name didn’t represent the book.
I just read the bio as I was getting quotes off, and I read he used acrylic paints, so maybe that explains the texture of the clothing on the last page. &I read he grew up on a farm, similar to the one in the book, and he likes painting pumpkins. He also has a dog Autumn. That was so cool to hear!
In the beginning it seemed to be all about comparing love. He loved pumpkins almost as much as his parents. Then he loves drawing almost as much as pumpkins. It isn’t a competition of what he loves most.
Then there’s the owner of the general store, that loves pumpkins almost as much as Angus does. Here we go again with the competition stuff. The pumpkins were supposed to be in a window, but it’s weird to have shelving in front of a window like that. &then there’s this cat sleeping. Is it inside the window? Why does the wooden paneling not look like the bottom of the store?
In the scene of him running home, he looks like an old man! &he looks so funny running. Why do one of those guys have fangs??
I thought it was weird/stupid to say he couldn’t hang his pictures up, because he was late getting home. It’s weird how he only seemed to draw on Halloween day. &his dad seemed to carve jack-o-lanterns the day before Halloween day. Does he only draw pumpkins? Why can’t he draw other days of the year?
‘he soon felt tired and fell into a deep sleep.’ So how did it go to: ‘though he could not have told you how it happened, he found himself high up in the barn loft.’ Then he sees his mother set out a pie in the windowsill. But wasn’t it nighttime?
I know he was dreaming of pumpkins floating and going to the barn. So I thought he was still dreaming when he suddenly ends up in front of his house and eats a pie, and then runs to the field to eat it. &a scarecrow comes to life. I thought this was a dream, and he’d eventually wake up and readers would realize it was all just a dream. So it was surprising what happened next.
The story got weird when the scarecrow turned him into a dog. &is so mad over the fact that he ate pie after being told not to. It wasn’t that big a deal.
‘Until a forgiving soul carves it’ sounded a little stupid. I wish it was worded better and sounded cooler.
When his dad said “maybe he’s been taken over the fields by an angry spirit” it was weird, because the story didn’t seem to be supernatural, or that his parents knew of or believed in the supernatural. It was a blasé thing to throw out there, and it wasn’t addressed after. The mom didn’t even comment on it.
In the scene where the parents are upset, and the dog shows up. The scarecrow is seen in the field, looking sad. It’s his fault in the first place! Now that I think on it, it’s none of his business. It was a way harsh punishment that really just hurt the parents. It’s the parents place to punish their kid.
Angus looks funny when he appears in the light after the pumpkin is carved. Very weird-looking smile.
‘Sometimes he thought he could almost hear sounds from deep within the pumpkin. As if messages from the sun and the moon somehow entered through the pumpkin’s stem to rest among the silent seeds.’ that didn't sound great, and I wish it had been cooler. you could have just said it a soul lived in the pumpkin, or there was magic inside. not moon&sun coming through the stem and into the seeds.
How did it go from his mom carving the pumpkin, to him appearing &then it mentions ‘the light was so bright Angus could not see’ so it seemed to be continuing the same scene and then it says he could see two figures& his parents were putting his pictures on the wall. I expected his mom to be really surprised and exclaim that their child had been the dog that’s been around for a year.&his dad to come running in. What a surprise that should have been! Well imagine my surprise when there was no surprise!
It was a huge oversight to not include his parents reactions.
The characters had the same colored outfits on the last page.
Omg he’s an old man! It’s supposed to be a picture of a dog, but it looks like a scene outside the window. In this book, paintings and drawings look like real life, like the people do. It has to be drawn in a way that makes it look like a painting or drawing. The ending isn’t right for an adult book. Idt they wanna see him old. it would be good for a young adult/adult novel.
Also, how did he know what he looked like as a dog that he was able to paint it? he would have had to see himself, or a picture of himself.
I like stories like that. It reminded me of East of the Sun, West of the Moon fairytale. Which I love.
When I finished the book, and looked back at the title, the name didn’t represent the book.
I just read the bio as I was getting quotes off, and I read he used acrylic paints, so maybe that explains the texture of the clothing on the last page. &I read he grew up on a farm, similar to the one in the book, and he likes painting pumpkins. He also has a dog Autumn. That was so cool to hear!
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 28, 2024
I think that this is a good book for Halloween time. The story seemed to be pretty original compared to anything I’ve ever read or watched. It seemed as though there were some punctuation mistakes, which I don’t think should happen in a published book. The pictures in the book were calming. This is something I could potentially bring into the classroom.
October 25, 2024
Agnus loves pumpkins and loves to draw them. One Halloween Eve, when he returns home after his curfew, he is sent to bed with no supper. He sneaks a pumpkin pie into the corn field, but a curse is put on him. Agnus must find a way to reverse the curse.
August 26, 2018
Beautiful art.
November 7, 2024
A cute little tale tail book about a boy and pumpkins.
April 8, 2025
A delightful children's book about pumpkins. A great holiday read for little ones with wonderful illustrations.
November 14, 2022
I want to read this for the illustrations, also to check if the editing is really as bad as one reviewer says, and if it should be dumbed-down as another reviewer said. (Obviously we already suspect my answer to that second reviewer as we know that I love books that challenge children... 'engrossed' is not that hard a word unless that reviewer thinks that all picture-books are for preschool & younger....)
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Well, there's one rather abrupt transition. And I don't know why the parents are so strict. Otherwise, it's a fine original fairy tale. Only scary if you believe in curses/spells, otherwise about the level of creepiness of Sleeping Beauty or so. Happy ending. Not too advanced, not too simple, for ages 8-10 independently or younger as a family read-aloud.
No idea what the editing complaint is. If anything, not enough adverbs. Fun vocabulary that is mostly decipherable by context (and not difficult anyway). Comma placement works fine. The scanned copy on OpenLibrary.org is just fine.
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Well, there's one rather abrupt transition. And I don't know why the parents are so strict. Otherwise, it's a fine original fairy tale. Only scary if you believe in curses/spells, otherwise about the level of creepiness of Sleeping Beauty or so. Happy ending. Not too advanced, not too simple, for ages 8-10 independently or younger as a family read-aloud.
No idea what the editing complaint is. If anything, not enough adverbs. Fun vocabulary that is mostly decipherable by context (and not difficult anyway). Comma placement works fine. The scanned copy on OpenLibrary.org is just fine.
October 18, 2014
The drawings are beautiful, the narrative is well written. There is a scary story in it regarding a boy who is turned into a dog for staying out drawing jack-o-lanterns to late. I read it to my 6 year old, he was a little frightened by it. The ending makes it better.
October 7, 2013
I would have given this fewer stars, but my kindergartener insists it gets 5.
October 25, 2024
Angus who lived on a farm, and enjoyed drawing pumpkins is placed under a spell by an ancient scarecrow, and forced to guard a magic pumpkin until a forgiving soul releases him from the curse.
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews