Fall is here, school is in full swing and harvest time is now. That means visits to apple orchards, corn mazes and pumpkin patches. Pumpkinheads by Rainbow Rowell and Faith Erin Hicks is the perfect book to read to celebrate the season.
DeKnock's World Famous Pumpkin Patch and Jamboree is perfect. In addition to the pumpkin fields and "corn maize" there are chicken races, a pumpkin bomb stand, chili fries station, pony go round, and even a "freeto pie" stop on the train route. Dejah and Josiah feel so lucky that they've been working together from September first through Halloween each year at the world's best pumpkin patch. But they will be graduating in the spring and this is the last night of the last season of their high school careers. It's their last chance to visit the S'mores Pit, the Pie Palace and the Fudge Shoppe. It's their last chance to experience everything one last time, say all of the things they've been too afraid to say and capture that feeling of the last night of something. Pumpkinheads is a story of friendship and what it's like to know you're growing up and away from the things and people who mean so much to you. It's about making the most of "it's now or never" moments both sweet and bittersweet.
I'm a bit obsessed with pumpkins and want to share some words from artist Yayoi Kusama, whose famous pumpkin sculpture is on display at the Hirshhorn Sculpture Garden in Washington, D.C.
"Pumpkins represent a source of radiant energy. Pumpkins bring about poetic peace in my mind. Pumpkins talk to me."
I could not agree more and the power and magic of the humble pumpkin is evident on every page of this charming middle grade graphic novel. We will discuss the power of caramel apples next time.