This rhyming story in the Viking Easy to Read series has clear, colorful illustrations that show children growing a garden, starting with seeds that they push way down into the warm, brown dirt. They water and weed, watch the plants flower and the pumpkins grow, and finally harvest the crop, bake cookies and pies, make Halloween masks, and save the seeds to grow next year. Holub's words are nearly all one syllable, and beginning readers will be drawn by the hands-on excitement as children make important things happen. There's also a lot to talk about with adults about how plants grow through the seasons.

This book shares the necessary qualities of a beginning reader--simplicity, repetition, predictability, and pictorial cues--with those of a successful picture book. The rhyming verse narrates a cycle of growing pumpkins, carried out entirely by happy, industrious children in the softly colored pictures. The depiction of the autonomous growers gives due respect to the burgeoning independence of young gardeners and readers alike.

Holub ( Scat, Cats! , above, etc.) uses a rhyming, patterned text to follow a group of five young children experiencing the growth cycle with pumpkins, from planting seeds all the way through to jack-o'-lanterns, pumpkin bread, and seeds saved for next year's garden. The simple text at the 2.4 level uses a "this is the —" pattern throughout, with rhyming couplets that encourage prediction of closing words. The sequential storyline covers both the necessary elements of nature (tilled soil, water, sun, worms, and bees) and the work by gardeners required for growing healthy plants. Nakata's ( Lucky Pennies and Hot Chocolate , 2000) cheerful watercolors of round-headed children are charming and generally complement the text, but the color palate is not as bright as it should be to reflect the vibrant, bouncy rhymes, especially for a title that will be used for reading to a group, as well as by individual readers. Nonetheless, easy nonfiction titles about seed cycles are always in demand for first- and second-grade science lessons, and Holub's story will also be used for preschool or kindergarten story hours in October, when pumpkin stories are as popular as full-sized candy bars on Halloween night . (Easy reader/nonfiction. 5-8)

K-Gr 2-In this appealing addition to the series, children are making a garden. The whole process, from preparing the soil to creating things from their harvested pumpkins, is cheerfully and simply reported in verse, two or four lines on each double-page spread. The illustrations of the smiling, busy youngsters show that they're into the project with both their spirits and their bodies: into the dirt "all warm and brown," the water, the weeds, and finally the pumpkins-"Inside the pumpkins/is wet, orange goop./This is the way/we scoop, scoop, scoop, scoop!" with both spoons and hands. Beginning readers should enjoy the short, simple text, the enthusiasm of the children, and the fun they're having.-Carolyn Jenks, First Parish Unitarian Church, Portland, ME Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.