It’s autumn and its pumpkin time! Everyone has pumpkin fever lately. Pumpkins play an important role in the most festive aspects of the season. This is a fun list of pumpkin children’s books full of pumpkin loving hijinks, practical knowledge imagination, even crafts, and recipes.
There’s even a printable calendar that illustrates each of the pumpkin children’s books on the list. Read on and discover all the incredible love for this wonderful squash in this list of pumpkin children’s books. From favorites like How Many Seeds in a Pumpkin to Too Many Pumpkins, this list will keep storytime fun all season long!
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Ready for Pumpkins – Kate Duke
This cute tale about a first-grade class guinea pig is a nice introduction to growing plants (especially seasonal ones) and learning patience. Inspired by the children Hercules goes to the garden to try some farming of his own, with the help of Daisy the rabbit.
Pumpkin Trouble – Jan Thomas
What’s inside the pumpkin. This book brings the silly surprises of Halloween to children between the ages of 4-8 years.
Patty’s Pumpkin Patch – Terry Sloat
Growing pumpkins and ABC’s. This is a fun learning book about letters and farm life.
Pumpkin Day – Nancy Elizabeth Wallace
Pumpkin Day is an adorable narrative that centers around one rabbit family’s enjoyment of pumpkins. Their pumpkin day consists of a pumpkin pancake breakfast and a trip to learn about pumpkins. Throughout the story, there are actual crafts and recipes to do so you can carve and cook along with the rabbit family.
How Many Seeds in a Pumpkin – Margaret McNamara
If your kid likes to count, or just the idea of getting elbow-deep in some squishy pumpkin guts, this is the perfect book. It’s a great introduction to skip counting and has a cute little message that goes beyond the science lesson.
The Bumpy Little Pumpkin – Margery Cuyler
When you are out picking pumpkins don’t let anybody tell you your choice is wrong. This is a tale of a little girl who is mocked by her sisters for choosing a bumpy pumpkin, but in the end, she carves a jack-o-lantern she likes and that’s what matters.
The Apple Pie that Papa Baked – Lauren Thompson
This harvest time children’s book begins with apples going into a pie a father makes for his daughter, but throughout the poetry of the book the focus gets broader with the tree being the subject, then the weather, and then the planet. It’s accompanied by very fine illustrations.
Pumpkin, Pumpkin – Jean Titherington
This one is hard to find. It’s a different take on a common tale about growing carving and planting pumpkins. If you can’t find it, don’t worry. There are lots of other pumpkin growing favorites on this list!
Five Little Pumpkins – Dan Yaccarino
This cute little rhyming and counting board book introduces ghosts and witches in a toddler-sized amount of spooky fun. This is more about Jack-o-lanterns and Halloween than it is about pumpkins in general, but it’s fairly tame for youngsters.
The Biggest Pumpkin Ever – Stephen Kroll
In this story, two mice have big aspirations about what to do with their pumpkins. The problem is that They have the same pumpkin. One wants to carve it, the other wants to enter it into a contest. Instead of fighting, the two decide to dream and work together.
Pumpkin Circle – George Levenson
This circle-of-life focused book not only gives a big clear picture of the life cycle of a pumpkin, it includes a note from the author on how to grow a pumpkin yourself. This is a fascinating look at the lifespan of pumpkin and what it entails.
The Pumpkin Book – Gail Gibbons
This book also covers the growth and life cycle of pumpkins, while also relaying their presence in popular culture as they pertain to our national holidays. As part of the overview of all things pumpkin, Gail shares how Pumpkins played a part in the first thanksgiving and even dives into the history of jack-o-lanterns.
Pumpkin Hill – Elizabeth Spurr
Pumpkin Hill is a cute and educational story about pumpkins that includes recipes on the back.(These storybook recipe combos are the best!)
Pumpkin Soup – Helen Cooper
This book has really nice illustrations. It’s a good story about three woodland friends who have a tiff about who gets to do what while making their daily pumpkin soup. This story should resonate well with siblings or anyone who familiar with the trials that sometimes come with friendship. The story becomes one of searching as the cat and the squirrel look for the duck who has stormed off and not returned.
Little Boo – Stephen Wunderli
This Halloween adjacent children’s book is predicated on the concept of scary jack-o-lanterns. The pumpkin seed wants to be scary, but each season of the year he fails to intimidate anybody. The seed must be patient and wait for his time when, as a pumpkin seed, he will finally reach his full potential.
Download Now: 30 Pumpkin Children’s Story Books
Pumpkin Town – Kate Mcky
This story presents a clever mix of gardening wisdom and childhood misadventure. When Jose plants too many pumpkins the expression “too much of a good thing” becomes a pressing reality. He and his brothers must come up with a plan to remedy the mistake quickly.
Plumply Dumply Pumpkin – Mary Serfozo
This quirky lyrical story has fun with rhymes and wordplay as it tells the story of one boy choosing the perfect pumpkin. It’s a nice non-scary Halloween themed book for very young children and early readers.
I Like Pumpkins – Jerry Smath
This cute book of pumpkin love is full of sweet little couplets that share the fun and excitement that pumpkins bring to Halloween. It’s a neat book to share with small children during the fall season when everybody loves pumpkins.
The Pumpkin Patch – Elizabeth King
Another perspective on the life-cycle of pumpkins gets captured in the photography of this book. Every moment in the lifespan of pumpkin patch pumpkins gets journaled from the seed to Jack-o-lantern time. This is a nice book for anyone who loves pumpkins.
Sixteen Runaway Pumpkins – Diane Ochiltree
This is the story about what happens when you try to stack sixteen pumpkins in a wagon. Spoiler alert: The fall. In this story, they roll all the way to grandpa’s kitchen. What’s next? Of course, they are going to make loads of pumpkin pie!
Pumpkin Moonshine – Tasha Tudor
Pumpkin Moonshine means Jack-o-Lantern. This story is all about finding the biggest fattest pumpkin to carve and the problem of getting it home. As she rolls the giant pumpkin across the field the adventure begins all across the farm.
It’s Pumpkin Time – Zoe Hall
This cute take on growing pumpkins is told through vibrant pictures as a brother and sister plant pumpkins, then watch them grow. This story doubles as a Halloween story complete with carved pumpkins and Halloween costumes. It also includes detailed information about how pumpkin seeds germinate.
The Pumpkin Fair – Eve Bunting
This is a neat story about pumpkins in a different than usual setting. I don’t say unusual, because Pumpkins belong in a pumpkin fair, but stories like this are pretty rare. The Pumpkin Fair is all about an exciting day doing all of the fun things you can do there. The games, the food, the marching band…it’s all chronicled in this upbeat poetic story complimented with watercolor and ink illustrations.
Pumpkin Jack – Will Hubbell
Here is a different take on the life of a pumpkin. Most pumpkin stories end with the Jack-o-lantern, but that’s where this one begins. It’s about a boy who can’t bear to throw out his very first jack-o-lantern. The story is complemented with sensory descriptions that help you feel autumn in the crunchy leaves and the crispy air.
This is Not a Pumpkin – Bob Staake
This one has a big surprise ending, but I’m already worried that I built it up too much. Suffice it to say, even if you figure it out ahead of time, this is for kids and kids love it.
Too Many Pumpkins – Linda White
This book is about the problem of making the best of a bad situation and making other people happy in the process. It all happens when Rebecca, who can’t stand pumpkins, accidentally grows a pumpkin patch. When a large pumpkin falls off a truck and breaks to pieces, she tries to cover it up with dirt. Turns out, she was planting pumpkin seeds. What will she do, now?
The Runaway Pumpkin – Keven Lewis
Okay, so he doesn’t run away. His mother makes sure he’s prepared before he goes. That said, this adventure takes a little pumpkin out of the pumpkin patch and into the world of Halloween, from witches to ghosts to dancing monsters.
How Big Could Your Pumpkin Grow – Windell Minor
This book is full of facts and imagination. Pumpkins can grow really big and you will learn a lot about those enormous pumpkins. But, it also makes the author wonder how big they really can be and what you could do with them.
Seed. Sprout, Pumpkin Pie – Jill Esbaum
This book uses colorful photography to illustrate how pumpkins grow from seed to pumpkin. Kids will follow along as th seed grows from the vine, to flower, and ultimately to a big round pumpkin with the help of some friendly pollinators. The book goes on, past the lifecycle of a pumpkin to explore the many ways we like to incorporate the popular squash into our holiday festivities.