Margery Cuyler

Halloween has finally come and Little Nell, who had helped Big Mama and her sisters care for their pumpkin patch all summer, must pick out the perfect pumpkin for a jack-o-lantern. While Big Sarah picks the tallest pumpkin she can find, and Big Lizzie the roundest, Little Nell settles on a small bumpy one. Despite the criticism of her sisters, Nell is determined that this is the pumpkin for her, and with the help of her animal friends, creates a jack-o-lantern worthy of the season...

When I picked The Bumpy Little Pumpkin up from the Halloween display in the children's section of my public library this past weekend, I thought it looked like a sweet seasonal tale. I must have missed the text on the cover declaring it a companion to author/illustrator team Margery Cuyler and Will Hillenbrand's The Biggest, Best Snowman, as I didn't realize that it was the second picture to feature this character and her animal friends. Happily, it is not necessary to have read that earlier story, to appreciate this one, which emphasizes the idea that, as Big Mama says, jack-o-lanterns (and presumably little girls) come in all shapes and sizes. The story here is gentle and reassuring, the accompanying multi-media artwork (done in oil, tempera, watercolor, crayon, pencil and collage) appealing, in a sweet and quirky way. I don't know that this is the most memorable pumpkin tale for Halloween that I've ever encountered, but I'd certainly recommend it to younger picture book audiences in need to sweeter rather than scary fare.… (meer)