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How Many Seeds in a Pumpkin? by Margaret McNamara


Looking for a Halloween appropriate book to read to your child while all the REAL Halloween books are all checked out? This book might just be the answer to your problems. Charlie is the smallest kid in his class. When the class is asked to line up according to size, Charlie is always dead last. Then one day, his teacher asks an intriguing question. “How many seeds in a pumpkin?” And which pumpkin will have the most seeds, a large one, a medium one, or a small one? Having an affinity for all things small, Charlie chooses to be in charge of gutting and counting the seeds of the smallest pumpkin.

Like me, you might be surprised by the interesting things you learn about pumpkins while reading this book. (Did you know you can tell if a pumpkin has more or less seeds just by counting its lines?) Learning to count by twos, fives, and tens is briefly covered in the story and Charlie’s Pumpkin Facts at the end of the book will have kids wanting to try their hand at growing some pumpkins of their own. Since Halloween is never actually mentioned in the story, this is technically not a Halloween book, but it's so close most kids will never notice the difference.

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