Pumpkin Time

Jami van Haaften is a professional librarian and author of An Index to
Selected Canadian Provincial Government Publications for Librarians,
Teachers and Booksellers.

Can a mother really change into a pumpkin and escape from reality for
over a week? Will her children be understanding and hide the truth from
her boss, her ex-husband, and their friends?

Three children discover a pumpkin in their kitchen one morning, and
agree that it must be their mother. They decide she must be happy
because she is “putting out leaves” and making a sound like a song:
“‘Pumpkinny, but. . . .’ ‘Sort of Mum-ish’.” The three
children look after one another and rationalize about why their
overworked and sometimes worried mother became a pumpkin. The
transformation from pumpkin to mother again takes place at the point
when the children discover they miss how it used to be.

Kim Lafave’s illustrations set the mood—starting out sunny and
bright but becoming cluttered and messy, and later blue and dismal, as
the children cope with their mother’s absence. Author Jan Andrews
presents an imaginative situation that causes children to appreciate the
role their mother plays in their lives.