"On Snaggletooth Lane in spooky Spooksville  was a dark creepy castle, perched high on a hill." If that's not a ...

Christopher Pumpkin Blog Tour

Thursday, October 31, 2019 BookBairn 1 Comments



"On Snaggletooth Lane in spooky Spooksville 
was a dark creepy castle, perched high on a hill."


If that's not a fabulous beginning to a Halloween story I don't know what is! Christopher Pumpkin by Sue Hendra & Paul Linnet and illustrated by Nick East is the story of a little pumpkin called Christopher. Except, well, the story doesn't start with Christopher. It starts with a wicked old witch who lives in a dark creepy castle who wants to throw a party and to help her get all the work done in time for the party. she brings to life a big pile of pumpkins (bought for a pie). One after the other she creates Gnarly and Grizzly and Grunty and Roar and Snaggletooth and Stink Face and then just one more...


Christopher!! A pumpkin who shines with warmth and kindness and loves glitter and sparkles and group hugs! Uh oh! Determined to fit in with his more gruesome colleague Christopher volunteers for decoration duty. But where the others hang cobwebs, Christopher hangs bunting. And instead of bat lanterns, he chooses balloons. He also falls short on his not-so-scary music choices and rather delicious looking menu. The witch threatens to turn him into soup! So he begs for one last chance and stays up all night plotting and planning the scariest party ever! And when the guests (vampires, Frankenstein, mummies, werewolves and ghouls) all turn up to the castle for the party they run off screaming! As does the witch and her ghastly pumpkins! Leaving Christopher a perfectly pink rainbow adorned, unicorn guarded castle all of his own!


Packed full of hilarious, spooky and adorable illustrations as well as a cast of ghastly characters, the illustrations in this book are so much fun! The contrast between the character of Christopher and the other pumpkins as you turn each page will delight little readers and the rhythmic rhyming text is such a joy to read aloud as a grown up. The surprise ending is also one that will cause fits of giggles! Ultimately it's a book about being true to yourself and that's a super message for all little pumpkins to read!

We enjoyed this one so much that we decided to bring to life some pumpkin friends of our own. Initially I had thought that we would carve some pumpkins and for three reasons I decided to do something simpler: firstly, pumpkin carvings is gross; second, I don't think I'm creative enough to create any more than one type of pumpkin face (my husband would be better at this than me!); but mostly, it's because my husband booked us a surprise holiday away so we didn't have time! (Sorry not sorry - hopefully I'm at a spa when you're reading this, or curled up in front of a log fire reading a book!)



So instead we used some less-than-happy looking apples from our apple trees and did some printing! We cut the apples in half (supervised by a grown up) and then created little orange pumpkin-shaped prints all over our page. Once the paint had dried we added some googly eyes and using a black marker pen created all sorts of gruesome and adorable faces! I even attempted Christopher! 


And as it's 31st October, all that's left to say is Happy Halloween! I hope you have a glitter filled sparkly Halloween a la Christopher or a ghastly ghoulish night if that's what you like best! 

Happy Halloween!
Kim and the Spook-bairns!


Disclaimer: We were sent a copy of Christopher Pumpkin free for review purposes by the publishers, as part of our joining the blog tour. Words and opinions are my own. If you click on the title or image of the book you will be sent to Amazon using an affiliate link. This means that if you choose to purchase on Amazon, I will receive a small sum (around 20-70p per book) from Amazon at no extra cost to you. I understand that you may not want to use an affiliate link, but if you like reading our blog please just think of it as a small tip for a tip-off to an awesome book. And know that your support means I can buy more books! For more information check out our 'For Our Readers' section.


1 comment:

  1. Christopher sounds like my kind of pumpkin! Great artwork MummySpookBairn.

    ReplyDelete