Pumpkin Moonshine
Halloween is coming, and Sylvie Ann wants to make a pumpkin moonshine  (or jack-o'-lantern), so she sets out across her Grandmummy and Grandpawp's  cornfields to find "the very finest and largest pumpkin." Once she finds it, the  problem is how to get it home. This fine, large pumpkin is so big, Sylvie Ann  can't carry it. So she rolls it across the field, like a snowball in winter,  until she reaches the edge of the field where the ground slopes down. And  suddenly, the pumpkin begins running away down the hill! Can Sylvie catch it  before it frightens the goats, terrifies the hens, enrages the geese, and bumps  into Mr. Hemmelskamp who is carrying a pail full of whitewash?Those who don't know the denouement to this more than 60-year-old classic by  two-time Caldecott Honor artist Tasha Tudor will not be surprised to find a  happy ending to this exquisite, gentle story. Tudor's delicate orange-framed  watercolors of a rural autumn and a bonneted little girl speak to a softer side  of Halloween--one that is not overtaken by werewolves, blood, and gore, but is a  reminder of the season in all its fresh abundance. Tasha Tudor has over 90 books  to her credit, includingThe  Dolls' Christmasand Caldecott Honor book,1 Is One. (Ages 4 to 8)--Emilie Coulter