Pumpkin Day at the Zoo

May 15, 2023
Once a year, families and farmers bring barrow-loads of squash for the zoo animals. Popular novelist Meissner branches out into children's picture books with this joyous paean to animals and pumpkins. We learn that pumpkins are "crunchy" and "slippery" and that they have seeds. Every page conveys the same message: The animals really like eating the pumpkins! Some rhymes are slightly strained (tummies is rhymed with yummy), and to fill out a line, the author sometimes resorts to repetition: "it's true, it's true"; "make way, make way!" Luckily, the exuberant illustrations carry the day. True to Pino's usual style, the animals are cute, fluffy, and capable of behavior that their wild counterparts aren't. An airborne hippo leaps acrobatically to grab a lobbed pumpkin, jaws agape in a hungry smile; Dumbo-esque elephants grin toothily. Most of the eating occurs against the backdrop of a zoo with very casual fencing, where zebras cavort close to tiger predators, separated only by a moat. Overindulging produces distended bellies and a peaceable kingdom, with the fiercest carnivores ignoring prey just a paw-length away. Green and brown are relieved by the bright orange on every page. Though most pumpkin-related books are typically tied to spooky season, there are no jack-o'-lanterns here--just voracious animals and the gourds they love. (This book was reviewed digitally.) Refreshingly, an autumn book that isn't about Halloween. (Picture book. 4-8)

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July 31, 2023
Voracious animals chow down throughout this account of an autumnal highlight: a zoo’s post-Halloween pumpkin day. Chipper imperative rhymes from Meissner invite a menagerie of species—an aardvark with a “spiffy sniffer,” apes and baboons, hippos, a wildebeest, and others—to partake in a feast (“Marvelous meerkats,/ come have a bite./ We know you love this crunchy/ delight”). As human figures portrayed with various skin tones gather, Pino’s animation-style artwork portrays myriad scenes of the zoo’s animal denizens enthusiastically devouring their treats. A beaver stares out from a pumpkin worn like a diving helmet; a yak, rind speared on its horn, slurps up seeds; and enterprising chipmunks collect fragments in a wooden wagon. Concluding pages show the whole gang with bellies bulging as final remarks imagine what the wild diners might say as thanks for the squashes. The carnivalesque vibe contributes to a genial picture of fall’s bounty from an animal’s-eye view. Ages 4–8.