Pumpkin Hill - Fall Read Aloud Books for Autumn - Halloween Read Alouds - Bedtime Stories for Kids
Pumpkin Hill, by Elizabeth Spurr, is an imaginative and entertaining kid's book read aloud for preschool, kindergarten, and elementary school ages (and adults still young at heart), for the Fall and Halloween season.
Parents and teachers, join me here at The Children's Storytime Bookshelf for daily read alouds in the classroom, at bedtime, or anytime!
Follow The Children's Storytime Bookshelf for a classic children's library.
#kidsbooksreadaloud #readaloud #readaloudbooksforchildren
Parents and teachers, join me here at The Children's Storytime Bookshelf for daily read alouds in the classroom, at bedtime, or anytime!
Follow The Children's Storytime Bookshelf for a classic children's library.
#kidsbooksreadaloud #readaloud #readaloudbooksforchildren
Transcript
00:00Pumpkin Hill, by Elizabeth Spurr.
00:29Illustrated by Whitney Martin.
00:35There once was a pumpkin, a lonely, only pumpkin, that grew on the brink of a great green hill.
00:46The sun shone, the rain fell, the pumpkin grew and grew, larger and orangier, and plump,
00:54plump, plumper.
00:55Till one fine day, it broke from its vine and roly-polyed down the hill.
01:01The pumpkin hit a stone, and ker-splat!
01:04That was that.
01:05Or was it?
01:10The pumpkin seeds lay on the soft, fertile earth, which soon wore a blanket of snow.
01:16In spring, the farmer came with his horse-drawn plow, scattering the seeds across the great
01:22green hill.
01:23But he and his wife could not agree, barley or corn, alfalfa or hay.
01:30So the hill was left unplanted, except for the pumpkin seeds.
01:38The rains came, the sun shone, the seeds grew into sprouts, the sprouts into vines, vines
01:46with leaves, leaves and flowers, flowers into roly-poly pumpkins.
01:54But since no one came to pick them, they withered away, except for the pumpkin seeds.
02:04In the spring, the farmer plowed once more.
02:07Tomatoes, potatoes, turnips.
02:12His hill remained unplanted, except for the pumpkin seeds.
02:16Sun and rain, once around again, sprouts, vines, roly-poly pumpkins, which withered
02:23away, except for, once again, in spring, the farmer plowed, but didn't sow.
02:31Little did he know he had no need.
02:34Beneath the soil, a crop was widely planted, those hardy little pumpkin seeds.
02:40They grew in sun and rain, from small green lumpkins into round, fat plumpkins.
02:50Because the farmer lived on the far side of the hill, he didn't see that the land had
02:55turned a bright orange with a mass of roly-poly pumpkins.
03:00There came a mighty wind, the whirly-swirly kind.
03:04It blew the vines into a tangle and sent the pumpkins rumble-tumble, hurtling down the
03:09great green hill.
03:14The valley town was wakened by a roar as loud as thunder, as thousands of pumpkins thumped
03:20and bumped down the slope.
03:22Behold a golden avalanche!
03:29Traffic jammed, shops shut.
03:31What a delightful disaster!
03:34The pumpkins bonked pedestrians and ricocheted off walls.
03:38They rolled into the marketplace and tumbled all the vegetables into a giant tossed salad.
03:48One couldn't help but chuckle to see uppity folks struggle with those most unruly roly-polies.
03:55Who could stay a grouchy grumpkin among those jolly bumping bumpkins?
04:03The mayor called a meeting.
04:05What shall we do with this preposterous predominance of pumpkins?
04:11Make jack-o'-lanterns, cried the children.
04:14Remember, it's almost Halloween!
04:17So the mayor decreed that each citizen must take home a pumpkin to carve.
04:22But when all had claimed their share, a plethora of pumpkins still lined the sides of the road.
04:28The children cried, Make pumpkin pies!
04:34All Hallow's Eve at moonrise, the whole valley glowed with the grins of six thousand jack-o'-lanterns.
04:42The night air wafted the scent, spicy and sweet, of three thousand and five pumpkin
04:48pies.
04:50Children dressed in costumes paraded on the green.
04:53Each held a candled pumpkin.
04:55What a blazing Halloween!
05:02Then the mayor imposed a harsh punishment on anyone who scattered pumpkin seeds.
05:07The guilty one must gobble fifteen pumpkin pies within a quarter of an hour.
05:13That is the reason why, on Halloween, after carving grim faces with fire-lit eyes, children
05:20salt, roast, and eat, for supper or snack, those perniciously prolific pumpkin seeds.