the Biggest Pumpkin Ever [Paperback]

Steven Kroll (Author), Jeni Bassett (Illustrator)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 1, 2007 | Age Range: 3 - 5 years

The biggest pumpkin is back in this new edition of the bestselling picture book with a foiled sticker sheet!

Once there were two mice who fell in love with the same pumpkin....

Desmond the field mouse wants to carve the biggest jack-o'-lantern in the neighborhood with his pumpkin. Clayton the house mouse wants to win the Biggest Pumpkin contest with his. But when they discover that their choice pumpkins are actually the same one, Desmond and Clayton decide to work together to grow the biggest pumpkin ever!

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Steven Kroll was the author of over fifty books for children and young adults, including the New York Times bestselling The Biggest Pumpkin Ever.

Jeni Bassett has illustrated more than thirty children's books, including The Biggest Pumpkin Ever, The Squirrel's Thanksgiving, and It's Groundhog Day. She lives in Altamonte Springs, Florida.

Product Details

• Age Range: 3 - 5 years
  
• Paperback: 32 pages
• Publisher: Cartwheel Books (August 1, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0439929466
• ISBN-13: 978-0439929462
• Product Dimensions: 7.4 x 0.1 x 10.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #437,511 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Steven grew up in New York City, on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. Steven's parents were very stylish. His father had a mustache and wore suits with a vest and a watch chain. His mother wore fashionable dresses and big hats. She was a great storyteller, which is probably where his love of telling stories began.

But he also had his Upper West Side neighborhood, a wonderful ethnic stew of Jewish, Latino, Chinese, and Viennese. Wandering those streets, experiencing the restaurants and the pastry shops, the delicatessens and the movie theater, the corner drug store and the corner book shop, Steven began to recognize a wider world, a world outside his own that would make him want to tell stories, travel, and be a writer.

Many of his books have come out of that neighborhood. The kids in his building all played downstairs together, under the watchful eye of Gordon, the doorman. The sharing they did can be found in THE BIGGEST PUMPKIN EVER and its sequels. The bullying, followed by sharing, can be found in JUNGLE BULLIES. The spark for his two novels of Italian immigrants in 1890's New York, SWEET AMERICA and WHEN I DREAM OF HEAVEN, came from hours listening to his night watchman, Tony, tell stories in the lobby after my Saturday night dates.

And there was Riverside Park, just a block away, where he played stickball near the railroad yards and cowboys and Indians on the green lawns, and where he watched an endless parade of dogs that morphed into an endless parade of dog stories, from IS MILTON MISSING?, his very first book, to A TALE OF TWO DOGS and POOCH ON THE LOOSE, his ode to New York at Christmastime.

Steven attended Hunter College Elementary School and McBurney. From there, he went to Harvard, graduating with a degree in American History and Literature. He decided to become an editor instead of a writer, improving other people's books instead of writing his own. But finally, he had to get out of publishing and write. He moved to Maine and struggled, writing now for both children and adults. Four years later, back in New York, Steven met a children's book editor named Margery Cuyler, who was the first to publish his work. He wrote 100 books for children, everything from picture books to American history to novels for young adults.

Steven married a journalist, Kathleen Beckett, and lived in NYC and an old carriage house in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. He spoke at schools and conferences all over the world.

Steven Kroll passed away on March 8, 2011 following complications from surgery. He was the beloved author of the New York Times Bestseller's list "Biggest Ever" series from Scholastic. Two writing awards have been established in Steven's name: the Steven Kroll/PEN American Center Award for the best text of an illustrated children's book, and the Steven Kroll Writing Award, given to a deserving student at St. Joseph's School in the Bronx.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Growing Together August 2, 2002

By Terrie

Format:Paperback

This is a fun Halloween story that Kindergarten through 3rd grade kids will enjoy. It traces the growing season of one special pumpkin from its start as a very tiny green bump on a vine to a huge carved jack-o-lantern that wins the town pumpkin contest. The pumpkin becomes the biggest and best pumpkin in the whole town and wins the contest because two mouse friends, Clayton and Desmond, without realizing it, are both taking care of it. They both fertilize it and water it throughout the summer. They both protect it from frost in the autumn. The pumpkin gets a double helping of TLC. When the huge pumpkin is finally ready it is too big for one mouse to haul it the contest so the two mice (who have finally discovered each other) work together and share the prize and the fun. The characters are engaging, the illustrations are very cute and the story is about sharing, caring, nurturing and co-operating. This book has the wonderful added benefit of teaching exactly how to grow a really HUGE pumpkin that a real child can try in their own pumpkin patch with great success, including some secret tricks one might not know about that will surprise and amaze.

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A SUPER GREAT BOOK TO READ WITH YOUR CHILD! October 1, 1998

By A Customer

Format:Paperback

What a fun book!! It has wonderful illustrations. It also shows children how pumpkins grow! If you love the fall season and pumpkins, don't miss this one!!!! I know it is a hit when my daughter wants to read it over and over again!

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Great Story of Sharing and Caring March 12, 2003

A Kid's Review

Format:School & Library Binding

This story was is great to teach you how a little bit of team work can get you where you want to be. In this story, two mice work together to grow a huge pumpkin, although they didn't know they were helping eachother. Each mouse put everything he had into making the pumpkin grow and be the best. Clayton the house mouse wanted to grow the biggest pumpkin and to win the grand prize at the town pumpkin contest. Desmond the field mouse wants to grow a pumpkin to make into the biggest and best jack-o-lantern ever. They work together and grow a pumplin bigger than their houses.
This story teaches you more than one thing. The first is that if you are determined to do something, and put your heart and soal into it, you can do whatever you want to do. In this case, grow a huge pumpkin. The other is that with teamwork, your job gets done faster, and sometimes makes the project easier. This is a very good book , and I recomend it, not just to kids, but to people of every age.