Big Pumpkin (Author: Erica Silverman / Illustrator: S. D. Schindler)

Eeek!  I forgot to post about the Halloween books we read and enjoyed this year.  Now that is truly frightening!

In "Big Pumpkin," a witch has grown a ginormous pumpkin to make pumpkin pie.  But because she has grown such a big pumpkin, she has a real problem: try as she might, she can't get that pumpkin off the vine!  A fun cast of Halloween characters come by to try their hand at moving the pumpkin, too.  No one seems big or strong enough to budge that pumpkin.  But when a clever little bat has a clever little idea...well, let's just say that there is something yummy in store for them all by the end of the story.

This is a very fun one for practicing your Halloween voices.  Enjoy!

Extra Yarn (Author: Mac Barnett / Illustrator: Jon Klassen)

In a town where everything is "either the white of snow or the black of soot from chimneys," a little girl named Annabelle makes a most curious discovery: "a box filled with yarn of every color."  Well, you can definitely imagine the possibilities there.  Annabelle knits herself a sweater, but when she's done, there is still extra yarn.  And so you, as the reader, get to follow all the fabulous things Annabelle does with that extra yarn and the interesting changes some colorful yarn can make.  And there is even a really fantastically nasty archduke who comes along, but I don't want to spoil the surprise of what happens there!

OK, and the pictures of the knitting!  I can't even adequately put into words how the combination of the simple, monochromatic illustration style and the colorful knitted elements tickles my fancy.  It is just sooooooo delightful!