The Runaway Pumpkin: A Halloween Adventure Story

It’s hard not to see Lewis’s (Fly Blanky Fly) story as a Halloween-themed answer to The Runaway Bunny, as a cherubic pumpkin tells his mother about everything he hopes to do on Halloween night. Unlike the rabbit parent in Brown’s classic, this mother isn’t a total helicopter pumpkin: she ensures her child has whatever he needs, be it a pirate costume for trick-or-treating or a blanket for visiting his ghost friends at a haunted house, but promises to send him on his way; eventually the younger pumpkin realizes that Halloween might be even better when spent with Mom. Wordless scenes of the small pumpkin’s imagined adventures alternate with the unfolding parent-child conversation. Built around the refrain “for you are my little pumpkin,” Lewis’s dialogue can be stilted, but Zenz’s (Orangutangled) cute-as-a-button pumpkins, ghosts, and mummies hit just the right note of sweetness. Ages 3–6. (Sept.)