Bound To Stay Bound

Booklist - 06/01/2018 “As orange as . . . a traffic cone! As big as a basketball! Round! Nearly perfect!” BUT it sports only a stump, not a stem. Poor little Stumpkin. As days pass, customers buy every pumpkin on the store’s shelf, confusing a scurrying black cat. Flash over to the black and gray buildings of the city: most windows have jack-o-lanterns displayed. When all the others are sold, only Stumpkin remains, dejected and unwanted, while the puzzled cat takes up a seat next to it. On Halloween eve, the shopkeeper scoops up the stemless pumpkin. The next pages are totally black. Is Stumpkin gone forever? No! White triangles appear on the next two spreads and eureka! Stumpkin the jack-o-lantern sits in the shop’s window with its cat friend. Gouache, pencil, ink, and brush marker illustrate each double-page spread in black, gray, and orange, while people and objects appear as black silhouettes against white backgrounds, highlighting the orange pumpkins’ expressive faces. Clear pictures and simple text pack an emotional punch for the revitalized misfit. - Copyright 2018 Booklist.

School Library Journal - 07/01/2018 PreS-Gr 3—What does every self-respecting pumpkin aspire to be? A jack o' lantern, of course. Stumpkin is big and round and "orange as a traffic cone"; he's full of promise, except for one minor flaw—he has no stem. Still, as Halloween approaches, he sits expectantly on his shelf outside a bodega waiting for someone to take him home, carve him up, and place him in their window. One by one, the windows in the building across the street fill up with smiling jack o' lanterns as the number of pumpkins on display in front of his shop dwindles. Finally, "Two were left on the shopkeeper's shelf. A boy came. And when the boy left…Stumpkin remained. The gourd?? Thought Stumpkin. I guess that's that." What will become of this poor, stemless pumpkin? After a tense few pages featuring a prominent trash can, a spread of pure black and some mysterious triangles, the shopkeeper comes up with the perfect solution. The illustrations, rendered in gouache, pencil, ink, and brush marker, feature a palette of black, white, orange, and a touch of green, while the people are all represented in black silhouette. Baby carriages, dogs on leashes, subway stations, streetlights, and fire hydrants capture a busy urban neighborhood. VERDICT A perfect holiday read-aloud for city kids and country dwellers as well.—Barbara Auerbach, formerly at New York City Public Schools - Copyright 2018 Publishers Weekly, Library Journal and/or School Library Journal used with permission.