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Rotten Pumpkin

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By Lauren
Rotten Pumpkin: A Rotten Tale in 15 Voices
Written by David M. Schwartz
Photos by Dwight Kuhn
Creston Books, 2013. Unpaged non-fiction.

What happens to a jack o' lantern after Halloween night? He's put back in the garden, and life carries on. Sort of. Rodents, slugs, and flies nibble away at him. Then, Jack begins to shrivel up. An amazing and icky close-up photograph shows the cause of his wrinkling to be black mold. The pumpkin is also starting to grow an impressive white beard of Penicillin! Jack wonders, the smaller and more shriveled he gets, "Am I still a pumpkin?" His pumpkin days are indeed numbered, and his body eventually decomposes and fertilizes the soil. Happily, seeds are still left, and new life can begin in the garden. This is a great book about the science of post-harvest life, told through some interesting narratives from the various creatures that come across Jack. A rotting good time!
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Comments

lw said…
Looks quite a lot like a distant relative of mine--the distanter, the better.
August 22, 2013 at 12:14 PM
Anonymous said…
How rude!
-Your great (pumpkin) aunt
August 22, 2013 at 1:52 PM
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