PICK A PUMPKIN: A Halloween Read Aloud in Verse

Looking for an excellent Halloween book in verse to read aloud to young children? I've got a recommendation for you: PICK A PUMPKIN, which was written by Patricia Toht and illustrated by Jarvis. The book was published in July. I was eager to get a copy of  PICK A PUMPKIN to read to my granddaughters because we all loved Toht's PICK A PINE TREE, which was also illustrated by Jarvis.

 

In PICK A PUMPKIN, a family goes to a farm to select just the right pumpkin to carve for Halloween. While at the farm, they also

Stop for mugs

of spicy punch,

toffee apples,

sweet to crunch.

The family takes the pumpkin home, rubs it clean, and gathers the things they'll need for carving their jack-o-lantern. Then...they invite a "pumpkin carving crew" over to help.

 

The crew begins their work:

Now all together...

carve the eyes.

Giant circles of surprise.

Small slits sleeping

or one eye peeping.

Cross-eyes crazy.

Angry. Lazy.

Before the crew lights its "new creation," they decorate the house for Halloween with...

Cobwebs strung from post to post.

Rings of gauzy dancing ghosts.

Spiders. Tombstones.

Dangling bats.

Skeletons and witches' hats.

Next, the children don their costumes, take the jack-o-lantern outside, and an adult strikes a match so it will glow.

It's red-hot eyes

will gaze

and flicker.

Its fiery grin

will blaze and snicker.



 

It will also guard the house while the children are off trick-or-treating.

Jarvis's illustrations are a perfect match for Toht's rhythmic, rhyming text. The final double-page spread shows children trick-or-treating in a dark neighborhood that glows with lit jack-o-lanterns and streetlights. The book truly captures the "spooky" excitement children feel on Halloween.

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Karen Edmisten has the Poetry Friday Roundup at her blog.

 

Halloween Poems for Kids

It’s time for Halloween poetry! Here are some of my elementary students’ favorites poems about the holiday:

MR. MACKLIN'S JACK O’LANTERN

by David McCord

Mr. Macklin takes his knife

And carves the yellow pumpkin face:

Three holes bring eyes and nose to life,

The mouth has thirteen teeth in place.

Then Mr. Macklin just for fun

Transfers the corn-cob pipe from his

Wry mouth to Jack’s, and everyone

Dies laughing!

Click here to read the rest of the poem.

https://www.poets.org/poetsorg/poem/mr-macklins-jack-olantern

(From ONE AT A TIME—Little, Brown, 1974)

ON HALLOWEEN

by Aileen Fisher

We mask our faces

and wear strange hats

and moan like witches

and screech like cats

and jump like goblins

and thump like elves

and almost manage

to scare ourselves.

( From OUT IN THE DARK AND DAYLIGHT—Harper & Row, 1980)

LOOK AT THAT!

by Lilian Moore

Look at that!
Ghosts lined up
at the laundromat,
all around the
block.

Each has
bleach
and some
detergent.

Each one seems to
think it
urgent

to take a spin
in a
washing machine

before the
clock
strikes
Halloween!

(From SEE MY LOVELY POISON IVY—Atheneum, 1975)

THE WITCHES’ RIDE

by Karla Kuskin

Over the hills
Where the edge of the light
Deepens and darkens
To ebony night,
Narrow hats high
Above yellow bead eyes,
The tatter-haired witches
Ride through the skies.
Over the seas
Where the flat fishes sleep
Wrapped in the slap of the slippery deep,
Over the peaks
Where the black trees are bare,
Where bony birds quiver
They glide through the air.
Silently humming
A horrible tune,
They sweep through the stillness
To sit on the moon.

(From DOGS & DRAGONS, TREES & DREAMS—Harper & Row, 1980)

pumpkin

by Valerie Worth

After its lid

is cut, the slick

Seeds and stuck

Wet strings

Scooped out,

walls scraped

Dry and white,

Face carved, candle

Fixed and lit,

Light creeps

into the thick

Rind: giving

That dead orange

Vegetable skull

Warm skin, making

A live head

To hold its

Sharp gold grin.

(From ALL THE SMALL POEMS—Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1987)

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Tricia has the Poetry Friday Roundup at The Miss Rumphius Effect.

Halloween Poetry

 

The website of The Academy of American Poets has a special section devoted to Halloween. It features poems about ghosts, haunted houses, vampires, and the underworld. It even includes suggestions for poet costumes.

Ghosts 

Haunted Houses  

Vampires 

The Underworld 

Poet Costumes



Here are two poems to share on Halloween--one from William Shakespeare and one from my friend, children's poet David McCord.

Macbeth, Act IV, Scene I [Round about the cauldron go]
by William Shakespeare
The three witches, casting a spell   Round about the cauldron go;   In the poison’d entrails throw.   Toad, that under cold stone    Days and nights hast thirty one   Swelter’d venom sleeping got,   Boil thou first i’ the charmed pot.          Double, double toil and trouble;      Fire burn and cauldron bubble.     Fillet of a fenny snake,   In the cauldron boil and bake;   Eye of newt, and toe of frog,   Wool of bat, and tongue of dog,   Adder’s fork, and blind-worm’s sting,   Lizard’s leg, and howlet’s wing,   For a charm of powerful trouble, Like a hell-broth boil and bubble.          Double, double toil and trouble;        Fire burn and cauldron bubble.    Scale of dragon, tooth of wolf,             Witches’ mummy, maw and gulf         Of the ravin’d salt-sea shark,               Root of hemlock digg’d i’ the dark,    Liver of blaspheming Jew,      Gall of goat, and slips of yew              Sliver’d in the moon’s eclipse,             Nose of Turk, and Tartar’s lips,           Finger of birth-strangled babe               Ditch-deliver’d by a drab,    Make the gruel thick and slab:             Add thereto a tiger’s chaudron,           For the ingredients of our cauldron.        Double, double toil and trouble;        Fire burn and cauldron bubble.

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Mr. Macklin's Jack O'Lantern
by David McCord
Mr. Macklin takes his knife And carves the yellow pumpkin face: Three holes bring eyes and nose to life, The mouth has thirteen teeth in place. Then Mr. Macklin just for fun Transfers the corn-cob pipe from his Wry mouth to Jack's, and everyone Dies laughing! O what fun it is Till Mr. Macklin draws the shade And lights the candle in Jack's skull.   You can read the rest of the poem here.   ********************   Irene Latham has the Poetry Friday Roundup at Live Your Poem...