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The Fierce Yellow Pumpkin
From beloved children’s book author Margaret Wise Brown and Caldecott Medalist Richard Egielski comes an enchanting Halloween tale!
A fat little, round little, yellow little pumpkin dreams of growing up to be fierce and frightening, just like the scarecrow in the field. Then one day in autumn, when he has grown big and fat, the fierce yellow pumpkin gets the chance to become terrific and terrible.
With rich, warm illustrations and inimitable words from the author of Goodnight Moon, The Fierce Yellow Pumpkin is sure to delight for generations.
A fat little, round little, yellow little pumpkin dreams of growing up to be fierce and frightening, just like the scarecrow in the field. Then one day in autumn, when he has grown big and fat, the fierce yellow pumpkin gets the chance to become terrific and terrible.
With rich, warm illustrations and inimitable words from the author of Goodnight Moon, The Fierce Yellow Pumpkin is sure to delight for generations.
32 pages, Paperback
First published August 5, 2003
203 people want to read
About the author
Margaret Wise Brown
393 books1,212 followersMargaret Wise Brown wrote hundreds of books and stories during her life, but she is best known for Goodnight Moon and The Runaway Bunny. Even though she died nearly 70 years ago, her books still sell very well.
Margaret loved animals. Most of her books have animals as characters in the story. She liked to write books that had a rhythm to them. Sometimes she would put a hard word into the story or poem. She thought this made children think harder when they are reading.
She wrote all the time. There are many scraps of paper where she quickly wrote down a story idea or a poem. She said she dreamed stories and then had to write them down in the morning before she forgot them.
She tried to write the way children wanted to hear a story, which often isn't the same way an adult would tell a story. She also taught illustrators to draw the way a child saw things. One time she gave two puppies to someone who was going to draw a book with that kind of dog. The illustrator painted many pictures one day and then fell asleep. When he woke up, the papers he painted on were bare. The puppies had licked all the paint off the paper.
Margaret died after surgery for a bursting appendix while in France. She had many friends who still miss her. They say she was a creative genius who made a room come to life with her excitement. Margaret saw herself as something else - a writer of songs and nonsense.
Margaret loved animals. Most of her books have animals as characters in the story. She liked to write books that had a rhythm to them. Sometimes she would put a hard word into the story or poem. She thought this made children think harder when they are reading.
She wrote all the time. There are many scraps of paper where she quickly wrote down a story idea or a poem. She said she dreamed stories and then had to write them down in the morning before she forgot them.
She tried to write the way children wanted to hear a story, which often isn't the same way an adult would tell a story. She also taught illustrators to draw the way a child saw things. One time she gave two puppies to someone who was going to draw a book with that kind of dog. The illustrator painted many pictures one day and then fell asleep. When he woke up, the papers he painted on were bare. The puppies had licked all the paint off the paper.
Margaret died after surgery for a bursting appendix while in France. She had many friends who still miss her. They say she was a creative genius who made a room come to life with her excitement. Margaret saw herself as something else - a writer of songs and nonsense.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 52 reviews
October 14, 2019
I can’t figure out what’s going on here. Margaret died in 1952, so how is it that this book is published in 2003. After looking it up, there is a reprint edition in 2003/2006 and no mention of the origianl publish year. I find stuff like this odd when an original publication date isn’t used.
Told from the perspective of the pumpkin, this is a straightforward story of the pumpkin wanting to be scary like the scarecrow. He grows, is carved and gets his wish. It’s cute enough, but it’s not the best Halloween book I have read.
The nephew read this with me. He did like the pumpkin’s face once it got one, but he thought the story was not very scary or exciting really. It was slow for him. He gave this 2 stars.
Told from the perspective of the pumpkin, this is a straightforward story of the pumpkin wanting to be scary like the scarecrow. He grows, is carved and gets his wish. It’s cute enough, but it’s not the best Halloween book I have read.
The nephew read this with me. He did like the pumpkin’s face once it got one, but he thought the story was not very scary or exciting really. It was slow for him. He gave this 2 stars.
May 11, 2019
Actually, it is scary - there are three kids running through the fields in hard shoes, and the one that is carrying the pumpkin is also carrying the saw knife. I am so disappointed by this illustrator... nothing has ever come close to Hey, Al. And, do you think maybe Brown didn't publish this because she didn't think it was fit yet? And maybe she knew best?
October 16, 2018
I wanted to read this earlier in October, because it just looked ok. I planned to read this after I got back from a PBR event, which just happened to be the weekend of Hurricane Matthew. Thank goodness the power came back on that morning, so I didn't have to read by lantern that night.
I was immediately confused by the title, because pumpkins aren't yellow. Especially since he changed colors from green to yellow to orange. So it seems to me the title should be the fierce orange pumpkin.
I didn't like that the pumpkin became full of himself and thought he was as fierce as the sun.
The pumpkin wants to scare mice out of the field like the scarecrow, but scarecrows don't scare mice, they scare crows.
He wants a 'fierce, ferocious gobble-gobble face like the scarecrow's.'
The sun didn't burn hot as fire, the sky was full of blackbirds, you could smell burning leaves, and the air grew crisp. You could just say fall was coming. I thought what was happening? Then realized these were just signs of autumn.
There were so many crows that the scarecrow was busy from 'before daylight until after daylight' chasing the birds from the field. You could just say from morning til dusk or something.
Somehow his face becomes 'droopy and dreadful.' I guess from the long hours working in the field? The wind blew through his hair, and he loses an eye. He knows that if anything will scare a crow, it's a one-eyed scarecrow. But in the illustration, it loos like the crows are attacking him, like they aren't scared of him at all.
The pumpkin wakes up one morning to find himself a burning orange color, like the sun. The mice seem to be surprised that he's suddenly orange, and are worried/frightened about it.
Three children come running through the field, see the pumpkin and say "here is our terrible pumpkin!" I wondered what they had planned for it, that they were calling it a terrible pumpkin. They seemed to have something big planned.
The children run past the scarecrow, This was the last we saw of the scarecrow. It was weird how he just disappeared from the story, because he was a large part of it before.
They take turns carrying him home; 'the little pumpkin liked that.' That was a little weird to me.
They cut a big round eye in the side of his face. 'A big round hole. And the little pumpkin liked that.' That was also weird to me. Why cut the eye in the side of the face, and after saying you cut a big round eye, why say a big round hole. It is a different hole? And the pumpkin 'liking that' was just weird to me. When I carved a pumpkin last year, I didn't make a round hole for the eyes. How would an eye be formed from a round hole?
He's referenced as the 'fierce yellow pumpkin' again, even though he's no longer yellow. I found that irritating. Just because he was once yellow doesn't mean he should forevermore be called the fierce yellow pumpkin.
The pumpkin says 'Ho! Ho!' loudly, and laughs a dreadful zigzag laugh as if he can speak.
His chant is "Ho, ho, ho! He, he, he! Mice will run when they see me!" Why would he want to scare mice? The purpose of pumpkins isn't to scare mice. And mice are probably used to pumpkins in the fields, and wouldn't be scared of them.
His face is called 'terrific' and 'terrible' and it did end up being a ferocious face, more evil than jack-o'-lanterns usually are. So I wasn't disappointed there.
I like how the illustrator kept the face of the pumpkin hidden until the end. It built anticipation waiting to see what the kids were doing with the pumpkin.
It was random to me that the kids danced around the pumpkin, singing a song to the 'terrific, terrible pumpkin with the zigzag grin.'
The illustrations make it look like they're having some sort of pagan dance, like they're worshiping the pumpkin. It's just odd to me. This was a random ending to the book. Why did the kids want to make a terrible pumpkin? What are they gonna do with it? It would make more sense if they were trying to scare trick or treaters.
The pumpkin was 'fierce and happy' and sings that the mice will run when they see him.
What bugged me about this was that the pumpkin was full of himself, wanted to scare the mice, and he got exactly what he wanted. The kids made him terrible and ferocious. I wish the pumpkin had been more humble, had better goals, more than just to scare something.
I would have liked it more if he had simply wanted to be carved for Halloween, to light the porch on Halloween, for trick-or-treaters to look at him when they got their candy. Just something more than it turned out to be.
I didn't like the last line either. After he sings that the mice will run, we turn the page to read 'and they did.'
I like a Halloween book to feel like Halloween. I would have liked this to end with trick or treating.
The writing was more juvenile than I expected in a book with so many words on the pages.
I don't care for writing like this:
'Gobble-gobble face.'
'"Ho! Ho! laughed the pumpkin.
The fierce yellow pumpkin.
"I'm a one-eyed pumpkin for sure."
"Ho! Ho! I'm a fierce yellow pumpkin for sure.'
'The little pumpkin laughed a dreadful zigzag laugh across his zigzag teeth.'
'He was certainly a fierce and ferocious pumpkin with a terrific, terrible face.'
'He was a horrible sight to see. Grrrrr in the dark. He grinned a zigzag grin there in the corner of the porch. Grrrrr.'
"Ho, ho, ho!
He, he, he!
Mice will run
when they see me!"
This was lacking in plot, and was just random.
I didn't like the writing overall, but especially the repetitive writing, using the same phrases, yellow little pumpkin, even after it turned orange. It shouldn't be called yellow if it isn't yellow anymore.
The pumpkin wanted to be as fierce as the sun, as scary as the scarecrow, but then suddenly wants to scare mice away. Scarecrows scare crows away, so idk how this suddenly turned to mice. He isn't even seen by trick or treaters or anything. The kids wanted a fierce pumpkin...to dance and sing around it? Why did they want it to be scary? This was just lacking all around, besides the illustrations, which I enjoyed. The back cover was pretty too. I love the blue sky and clouds with the yellow moon. That was very pretty.
The scarecrow took the show for me, not the fierce yellow pumpkin.
The scarecrow was cute any page he was on, with his bent, dangling legs, button eyes. I laughed out loud at the image of the scarecrow with one eye coming off, his legs all bent up, hat flying off, the crows attacking him.
The pumpkin's goals were a lil strange. He just wanted to be fierce. I wish he had wanted more, or done more.
For the illustrations I would bump this up to a 2 star rating. But based on the writing, it gets a 1, because I just didn't enjoy the story.
I was immediately confused by the title, because pumpkins aren't yellow. Especially since he changed colors from green to yellow to orange. So it seems to me the title should be the fierce orange pumpkin.
I didn't like that the pumpkin became full of himself and thought he was as fierce as the sun.
The pumpkin wants to scare mice out of the field like the scarecrow, but scarecrows don't scare mice, they scare crows.
He wants a 'fierce, ferocious gobble-gobble face like the scarecrow's.'
The sun didn't burn hot as fire, the sky was full of blackbirds, you could smell burning leaves, and the air grew crisp. You could just say fall was coming. I thought what was happening? Then realized these were just signs of autumn.
There were so many crows that the scarecrow was busy from 'before daylight until after daylight' chasing the birds from the field. You could just say from morning til dusk or something.
Somehow his face becomes 'droopy and dreadful.' I guess from the long hours working in the field? The wind blew through his hair, and he loses an eye. He knows that if anything will scare a crow, it's a one-eyed scarecrow. But in the illustration, it loos like the crows are attacking him, like they aren't scared of him at all.
The pumpkin wakes up one morning to find himself a burning orange color, like the sun. The mice seem to be surprised that he's suddenly orange, and are worried/frightened about it.
Three children come running through the field, see the pumpkin and say "here is our terrible pumpkin!" I wondered what they had planned for it, that they were calling it a terrible pumpkin. They seemed to have something big planned.
The children run past the scarecrow, This was the last we saw of the scarecrow. It was weird how he just disappeared from the story, because he was a large part of it before.
They take turns carrying him home; 'the little pumpkin liked that.' That was a little weird to me.
They cut a big round eye in the side of his face. 'A big round hole. And the little pumpkin liked that.' That was also weird to me. Why cut the eye in the side of the face, and after saying you cut a big round eye, why say a big round hole. It is a different hole? And the pumpkin 'liking that' was just weird to me. When I carved a pumpkin last year, I didn't make a round hole for the eyes. How would an eye be formed from a round hole?
He's referenced as the 'fierce yellow pumpkin' again, even though he's no longer yellow. I found that irritating. Just because he was once yellow doesn't mean he should forevermore be called the fierce yellow pumpkin.
The pumpkin says 'Ho! Ho!' loudly, and laughs a dreadful zigzag laugh as if he can speak.
His chant is "Ho, ho, ho! He, he, he! Mice will run when they see me!" Why would he want to scare mice? The purpose of pumpkins isn't to scare mice. And mice are probably used to pumpkins in the fields, and wouldn't be scared of them.
His face is called 'terrific' and 'terrible' and it did end up being a ferocious face, more evil than jack-o'-lanterns usually are. So I wasn't disappointed there.
I like how the illustrator kept the face of the pumpkin hidden until the end. It built anticipation waiting to see what the kids were doing with the pumpkin.
It was random to me that the kids danced around the pumpkin, singing a song to the 'terrific, terrible pumpkin with the zigzag grin.'
The illustrations make it look like they're having some sort of pagan dance, like they're worshiping the pumpkin. It's just odd to me. This was a random ending to the book. Why did the kids want to make a terrible pumpkin? What are they gonna do with it? It would make more sense if they were trying to scare trick or treaters.
The pumpkin was 'fierce and happy' and sings that the mice will run when they see him.
What bugged me about this was that the pumpkin was full of himself, wanted to scare the mice, and he got exactly what he wanted. The kids made him terrible and ferocious. I wish the pumpkin had been more humble, had better goals, more than just to scare something.
I would have liked it more if he had simply wanted to be carved for Halloween, to light the porch on Halloween, for trick-or-treaters to look at him when they got their candy. Just something more than it turned out to be.
I didn't like the last line either. After he sings that the mice will run, we turn the page to read 'and they did.'
I like a Halloween book to feel like Halloween. I would have liked this to end with trick or treating.
The writing was more juvenile than I expected in a book with so many words on the pages.
I don't care for writing like this:
'Gobble-gobble face.'
'"Ho! Ho! laughed the pumpkin.
The fierce yellow pumpkin.
"I'm a one-eyed pumpkin for sure."
"Ho! Ho! I'm a fierce yellow pumpkin for sure.'
'The little pumpkin laughed a dreadful zigzag laugh across his zigzag teeth.'
'He was certainly a fierce and ferocious pumpkin with a terrific, terrible face.'
'He was a horrible sight to see. Grrrrr in the dark. He grinned a zigzag grin there in the corner of the porch. Grrrrr.'
"Ho, ho, ho!
He, he, he!
Mice will run
when they see me!"
This was lacking in plot, and was just random.
I didn't like the writing overall, but especially the repetitive writing, using the same phrases, yellow little pumpkin, even after it turned orange. It shouldn't be called yellow if it isn't yellow anymore.
The pumpkin wanted to be as fierce as the sun, as scary as the scarecrow, but then suddenly wants to scare mice away. Scarecrows scare crows away, so idk how this suddenly turned to mice. He isn't even seen by trick or treaters or anything. The kids wanted a fierce pumpkin...to dance and sing around it? Why did they want it to be scary? This was just lacking all around, besides the illustrations, which I enjoyed. The back cover was pretty too. I love the blue sky and clouds with the yellow moon. That was very pretty.
The scarecrow took the show for me, not the fierce yellow pumpkin.
The scarecrow was cute any page he was on, with his bent, dangling legs, button eyes. I laughed out loud at the image of the scarecrow with one eye coming off, his legs all bent up, hat flying off, the crows attacking him.
The pumpkin's goals were a lil strange. He just wanted to be fierce. I wish he had wanted more, or done more.
For the illustrations I would bump this up to a 2 star rating. But based on the writing, it gets a 1, because I just didn't enjoy the story.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
September 25, 2008
Great illustrations. Strange little story.
September 11, 2019
The illustrations are a bit weird considering that the pumpkins are not actually yellow. I imaged that it was going to be a yellow pumpkin Squash but it's just a regular looking orange pumpkin. The story is odd and a bit confusing. I didn't care much for the drawing of the children, they look unattractive.
December 9, 2017
I love that Grayson selected a Margaret Wise Brown title for his first school library visit. We are big fans of Goodnight Moon and had high hopes for this one. It wasn't a hit with either of us. Perhaps we were hoping for more. It is still a lovely story and you can't beat a festive, timely, holiday tale.
October 7, 2015
2.5 stars I had a kid the other day tell me "THAT is NOT a pumpkin...that is a JACK-O-LANTERN" So, a nice story with nice pictures but, there was no mention of the pumpkin being transformed into a Pumpkin...okay.. now you know!
August 22, 2008
The story was OK, but the illustrations were great.
November 8, 2012
It's not "Goodnight, Moon," but it paints a nice picture of the season.
November 13, 2014
This is a charming little story, accented by marvelous colorful drawings. What child wouldn't love to read this book?
October 12, 2019
It’s just ok. Didn’t love it and I’m a big fan of the author. Checked this out for my 5 year old for our October Read Aloud Revival choices. My daughter liked it but didn’t love it either.
October 27, 2021
It's a very cute story.
October 28, 2009
This new Margaret Wise Brown picture book, discovered and published years after we thought that all of her writing had already been popularly consumed, creates a good atmosphere of Halloween feeling and tells the story the way that Margaret Wise Brown always did: the way that young readers wanted it to be. We identify with the pumpkin as it grows, wanting big things for its own future and looking forward to those things with happy expectation; when these hopes eventually see their fruition, it is a definite comfort amidst the Halloween mayhem.
August 7, 2010
The Fierce Yellow Pumpkin dreams of scaring little field mice as the scarecrow does. The pumpkin grows until three children come along and cut him from the vine. They give him two eyes, a nose shaped like a witch's hat, and zigzag teeth. He's fierce!...and he scares away those three little mice.
Used for "Pumpkins, Pumpkins Everywhere" Storytime-October, 2010.
Used for "Pumpkins, Pumpkins Everywhere" Storytime-October, 2010.
November 3, 2012
We picked this book up from the library for a Halloween read. It was a good book to read aloud and would be great for kids when they are learning to describe things. We read it several times before returning it.
October 14, 2016
October 2016 - this one genuinely scared Ben when we turned to the jack-o-lantern spread. Which surprised me, because he hasn't been scared by any other Halloween books. Who knows! I thought it was fun.
October 5, 2012
Nice read-aloud text (like all of Margaret Wise Brown's picture books).
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October 7, 2012Margaret Wise Brown does it again. A fabulously creative book that will draw in children. This book is relatable yet creative and will intrigue young readers.
January 23, 2014
A sweet story of a little pumpkin who dreams of being as frightening as a scarecrow. Good for autumn and Halloween storytimes.
November 4, 2014
Great Halloween book for preschool or toddler storytimes (without actually using the word Halloween). It's simple enough for the young ones and scary enough for the older ones.
February 20, 2015
My absolute favorite Halloween book. The story of a little pumpkin who wanted to be so fierce - and got his wish.
October 28, 2017
A little bit too long to keep my little ones' short attentions, but fun!
August 17, 2018
A little too texty for a storytime. Also I was confused why they had so many pages about the scarecrow and the blackbirds when it didn't end up being important to the story?
October 22, 2018
Dated but cute enough; nice centerfold illus of giant pumpkin.
October 25, 2018
would have been better if the pumpkin wasn't continually referred to as yellow when it was orange.
December 13, 2018
Posthumously published, I thought it was super cute if a little unfinished.
October 22, 2023
A small green pumpkin dreams of being as fierce and frightening as the scarecrow in his field in this Halloween picture book, eventually growing to be a somewhat larger yellow pumpkin, and then a round, full-sized fierce orange. Found and harvested by three children, the pumpkin is truly transformed, turned into a jack-o-lantern and made a part of their holiday celebration. His dreams fulfilled, the pumpkin even manages to scare the mice that were previously oblivious to his fearsome potential...
The celebrated Margaret Wise Brown, many of whose picture books— Goodnight Moon , The Runaway Bunny , Big Red Barn —are considered childhood classics, has had quite a posthumous career in the field. Although she died in 1952, and although she published more than one hundred books during her lifetime, new books written by her continue to be produced to this day, with stories taken from her cache of unpublished manuscripts. The Fierce Yellow Pumpkin is one of these, first published in 2003, and accompanied by the artwork of Caldecott Medal-winning illustrator Richard Egielski. Although I wouldn't describe it as destined to become a personal favorite, I did appreciate the story here, and the way it focused on the pumpkins-eye-view of Halloween. The artwork is lovely, and has a classic feeling to it. I loved the scene in which the children are carving the pumpkin, and then the one in which they dance around it. Despite the title, this is one I would recommend to readers looking for fairly gentle Halloween stories featuring jack-o-lanterns.
The celebrated Margaret Wise Brown, many of whose picture books— Goodnight Moon , The Runaway Bunny , Big Red Barn —are considered childhood classics, has had quite a posthumous career in the field. Although she died in 1952, and although she published more than one hundred books during her lifetime, new books written by her continue to be produced to this day, with stories taken from her cache of unpublished manuscripts. The Fierce Yellow Pumpkin is one of these, first published in 2003, and accompanied by the artwork of Caldecott Medal-winning illustrator Richard Egielski. Although I wouldn't describe it as destined to become a personal favorite, I did appreciate the story here, and the way it focused on the pumpkins-eye-view of Halloween. The artwork is lovely, and has a classic feeling to it. I loved the scene in which the children are carving the pumpkin, and then the one in which they dance around it. Despite the title, this is one I would recommend to readers looking for fairly gentle Halloween stories featuring jack-o-lanterns.
October 13, 2020
This is a fun book to read for Halloween, probably worth borrowing from the library but not quite good enough to purchase on its own. A pumpkin waits in the field, hoping to be carved into a fearsome jack o lantern who could scare the field mice. Halloween finally comes, and the pumpkin is chosen by some children and gets his wish
It’s interesting to get a perspective from a pumpkin about the changing season and wanting to become a jack o lantern. The language is a little bit old fashioned feeling, which makes it fun and interesting and fits the theme well enough. The focus on the pumpkin being yellow vs orange is a little strange but it’s not a big deal. The pumpkin also is a little bit of a mean or arrogant character but it works.
It’s interesting to get a perspective from a pumpkin about the changing season and wanting to become a jack o lantern. The language is a little bit old fashioned feeling, which makes it fun and interesting and fits the theme well enough. The focus on the pumpkin being yellow vs orange is a little strange but it’s not a big deal. The pumpkin also is a little bit of a mean or arrogant character but it works.
October 26, 2023
I always enjoy Margaret Wise Brown. The illustrations are bold and big - just perfect for young and old children. Our pumpkin wants desperately to be as scary as the scarecrow in the field. His exclamations were my favorite part.
January 19, 2018
A nice story for Halloween.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 52 reviews