2006_10_01_archive

PUMPKINS (NONFICTION)

PICTURE BOOK

PUMPKINS by Ken Robbins (Roaring Brook)

Sigh. Oh, that Ken Robbins. He really gets it. He knows that when

people pick up a book with photographs, they are looking for something

real, something captured from life, and something with brevity,

letting the pictures be worth a thousand words. He perpetually

achieves a graceful balance between his evocative, clear photographs

and a minimal amount of equally clear and direct text; a teacher's

dream, folks. This season, squash is on the menu, and he serves it up

from flower to fruit, with close-ups and wide angles, and always a

sense of the farm from whence it comes. Big pumpkins, little pumpkins,

pumpkins carved into jack-o-lanterns on a spooky, out-of-focus

Halloween night, and pumpkins dilapidated and rotting, but full of the

seeds that will sprout the story all over again.

I never regret a Ken Robbins purchase, and read his books aloud again

and again to children five and up with pleasure. They are perfect for

integrating non-fiction into a storytime, or for pictoral reference

and inspiration on any topic that he chooses, such as the following

titles also of interest:

SEEDS (Atheneum)

AUTUMN LEAVES (Scholastic) (Why do my favorites go out of print? Worth

the hunt, because it doubles as a much-needed primary feild guide.)

APPLES (Atheneum) (6 and up)

THUNDER ON THE PLAINS: THE STORY OF THE AMERICAN BUFFALO (Atheneum)

(Especially moving, and a departure from the author's frequent science

forays.) (7 and up)

Who are some of your favorite authors who use the photographic form?

Nina Crews? George Ancona? Share in the comments section! Do you like

the content-rich Dorling Kindersley style of "museum in a book," which

revolutionized publishing with their groundbreaking photographic