After watching the first graders grow plants from seeds, Hercules, the class guinea pig, is inspired. He wants to grow things, too! With the help of a rabbit named Daisy, Hercules plants his seeds and waits. And waits and waits. . . . He learns that growing things takes more than seeds and soil, sun and rain. It takes patience. But sometimes having to wait makes the reward even sweeter.

Hercules is a classroom guinea pig. It’s an easy life, but he wants to do more. He wants to grow things. So during summer vacation he plants the pumpkin seeds he saved from last Halloween. Hercules can’t wait, but plants don’t grow overnight. Hercules and a friend wait and wait; at last the seeds sprout. It takes a lot of patience to grow a garden. The pumpkins are still growing when it is time to go back to school. However, Hercules has plenty of class activities to keep him busy until a surprise arrives.

The Bottom Line: Watercolor illustrations in soft colors help tell a seasonal story of patience and friendship. Fun classroom reading for grades K – 2.

This review also appears at the Mini Book Bytes Book Review Blog. ( )

I liked this book for a few reasons. Ready for Pumpkins is a book about a guinea pig names Hercules. During the school year, Hercules secretly collects some pumpkin seeds from his home in his first grade classroom. When he goes to his "vacation home" during the summer, he plants the pumpkin seeds with the help of his rabbit friend, Daisy. I liked the message that this book taught. Hercules had to be patient in order for his seeds to grow, but often was not. His friend Daisy would help him by telling him to "cool it." Together, they would also create stories about pumpkins and that really helped Hercules to be patient for his garden. I also liked the illustrations that this book had. They were very cute and realistic and I believe that children would really enjoy seeing a guinea pig in a garden. Lastly, I liked this book because it was paced well and it was very organized. Through the writing, a reader could see inside Hercules's thoughts and they would easily be able to understand why he would do things. ( )

Hercules is a classroom guinea pig. It’s an easy life, but he wants to do more. He wants to grow things. So during summer vacation he plants the pumpkin seeds he saved from last Halloween. Hercules can’t wait, but plants don’t grow overnight. Hercules and a friend wait and wait; at last the seeds sprout. It takes a lot of patience to grow a garden. The pumpkins are still growing when it is time to go back to school. However, Hercules has plenty of class activities to keep him busy until a surprise arrives.

The Bottom Line: Watercolor illustrations in soft colors help tell a seasonal story of patience and friendship. Fun classroom reading for grades K – 2.

This review also appears at the Mini Book Bytes Book Review Blog. ( )

This book was super cute! I liked it for two main reasons. One of the reasons I liked this book so much was because of its organization. Not only the organization of the story elements, but also the page layouts and locations of the illustrations. For example, some pages included little boxes that reminded me of comic strip boxes. Inside these boxes were simple steps that the Guinea pig followed in order to plant his pumpkin seeds. Organizing this part of the story in this way helps readers understand sequence of events. They are able to see the changes from one box to the other. Another reason I liked this book was because it included speech bubbles throughout the story. Because the story was written as the guinea pig as the narrator, it would be hard for readers to know what was going on in the human’s lives. The speech bubbles provide information on the other important characters as well as provide an interesting and engaging way to read a story. The main message of this story was to explain the importance of waiting and that if you have a goal in mind, to stick to it.
( )