By Sheila Oliveri

October brings with it the timeless tradition of visiting area pumpkin farms to celebrate fall. To prepare for this year’s seasonal trek, Ready Readers recommends an autumn adventure: Runaway Pumpkins by writer Teresa Bateman and illustrator Stephanie Fizer Coleman.

Bateman’s rhyming text and Coleman’s bright illustrations paint a lyrical picture of a class field trip to a pumpkin farm. The story opens with children boarding the school bus, eagerly anticipating the fun ahead. On arriving at the farm, the children spill from the bus to see more pumpkins than they’d ever imagined: “Pumpkins big and pumpkins tiny; Short and fat and dull and shiny. Bumpy, lumpy, straight or curvy; Really round or topsy-turvy.” The students pick the pumpkins they love best, and all are loaded onto the bus – children in their seats, pumpkins latched in the outside hatches.

As the bus rolls back to school, children excitedly envision their pumpkins carved with wide eyes and crooked smiles. Unbeknown to them, though, calamity strikes beneath their feet as the storage doors pop open, spilling the plump treasures along the road and down a hill to houses below. Neighbors gather amid the bumped and bruised pumpkins scattered about and contemplate what to do: “They gather pumpkins all a-tizzy; Take them home and then get busy.”

Meanwhile, the bus arrives at school, and the children anxiously await the unloading: “Teachers hear the cries of woe, ‘Where did all the pumpkins go?’” Disappointment descends when the students learn only one pumpkin survived the mishap, but they rally and decide to decorate the lone prized squash together. The next day brings more happiness: “The students rejoice, what a happy surprise! Our pumpkins are back, but they came in disguise.”