Stumpkin

In Stumpkin, Lucy Ruth Cummins's sophomore effort as an author/illustrator, she presents a perfectly good pumpkin protagonist not chosen to be a jack-o-lantern on Halloween. But why is the pumpkin not selected to decorate a window in one of the buildings surrounding the New York City bodega where it is for sale?
 
Because Stumpkin is the only pumpkin without a lovely green stem. As the other pumpkins get sold around him, he begins to worry: "He was a handsome pumpkin--as orange as a traffic cone. He was as big as a basketball--and twice as round! Stem-schmem! Who knows? Some people might even prefer a stemless pumpkin." But conforming consumers (even children) prefer the usual, and all the stemmed pumpkins get purchased--even the yellow gourd.
 
When Stumpkin is left all alone, the shopkeeper takes action. Over the course of several dramatic pages, Stumpkin is transformed. Starting with an all-black double page spread, the page turn introduces the first triangle (a nose); the next page turn reveals two triangular eyes.... After interjecting a nighttime urban scene with jack-o-lanterns shining out of grey building windows, Cummins continues to celebrate Halloween in the city with her Stumpkin reveal. Silhouetted trick-or-treaters gather round the shop's new display, a smiling jack-o-lantern Stumpkin placed front and center, in between the shop's black cat and a bowl of treats. Cummins's evocative illustrations were created with gouache, pencil, ink and brush marker. The oranges and greens of the pumpkins, with that little bit of yellow for the lone gourd, sharply punctuate the dominant grays and blacks. (And knowing viewers will even spot the L train stop in trendy Williamsburg, Brooklyn.)
 
Stumpkin is a gentle story about differences, set within a popular holiday's traditions, with striking urban-based illustrations. --Melinda Greenblatt, freelance book reviewer
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