HOW BIG COULD YOUR PUMPKIN GROW
By Wendell Minor 
Penguin Group, Nancy Paulsen Books
August 2013


OVERVIEW

Every year, giant pumpkin contests take place at fairs across the country—the 2012 record-holder weighed over a ton! The latest craze is to carve the most enormous pumpkins into racing boats. But what’s next? Why not think reallybig? Award-winning artist Wendell Minor does just that as he imagines larger-than-life pumpkins decorating some of America’s favorite places—as immense as the Capitol dome, Mount Rushmore, the Brooklyn Bridge, even the Grand Canyon! This celebration of famous landmarks and landscapes plays with concepts of size and scale and is full of fun facts.


REVIEWS:


HORN BOOK

"The artist’s proven talent for classic landscapes here gets a wink with the STUPENDOUS jack-o’-lanterns plomping their grinning selves down like they owned the place. Facts about each place depicted are appended."

---Roger Sutton


PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
 
“Halloween is a day that sets imaginations spinning, and Minor encourages some pumpkin-themed thought experiments of his own—while boosting kids’ vocabularies and giving them a brief tour of the U.S. to boot."


SCHOOL LIBRARY JOURNAL

"Starting in a patch filled with large but ordinary pumpkins, this book quickly takes a turn for the fantastical as Minor imaginatively answers the title question. With each page, the pumpkins grow bigger, becoming gigantic jack-o'-lanterns."


BOOKLIST

"Minor's watercolor and gouache paintings are well composed, richly colored, and (best of all) just plain fun. With a text that asks leading questions, this picture book makes a fine, imaginative read-aloud choice for classrooms in the fall."


KIRKUS REVIEW

Minor focuses his attention on the symbolic gourd of fall, juxtaposing national landmarks or record-setting structures of impossibly enormous pumpkins or jack-o'-lanterns. ... From Connecticut to California, 14 places are featured. ... Playing with scale and prompting readers to think big ensures a quick and entertaining tour to awesome sights."



The Hickory Stick Bookshop
Amazon
Barnes And Noble
Book Web