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*Splat the Cat and the Pumpkin-Picking Plan* by Rob Scotton
 
Also by Rob Scotton:

Splat the Cat Goes to the Doctor

Splat the Cat: What Was That?

Splat the Cat and the Snowy Day Surprise

Splat Says Thank You!

Russell the Sheep
Splat the Cat and the Pumpkin-Picking Plan
by Rob Scotton
Ages 3-5 24 pages HarperFestival July 2014 Paperback    

Splat’s not too good at raking leaves (he cannot resist jumping into the pile), so his mother sends him to Farmer Patch’s pumpkin patch for the perfect pumpkin.

He needs to bypass the dog scarecrow and find a big, orange, round pumpkin. He gets sidetracked by the hay bale maze and the apple-and-fish cider, but then Seymour the mouse helps him pick out the perfect pumpkin. They use a measuring tape and magnifying glass to find the one that fits their criteria, but it’s the biggest pumpkin in the patch!

The friends cannot use the wagon they brought; it’s too small, but the momentum of a huge rolling pumpkin and Splat’s two feet allow him to steer the pumpkin home to his mother.

“Well done!” says his mother when they arrive back in the yard. She thinks it’s perfect.

This story immerses the reader into a colorful autumn morning. Yellow, red, orange and brown leaves fall like snowflakes. Many of the illustrations make you smile. When Splat’s in the maze, all we see is his tail (with Seymour on top), and when Splat is zooming through town on the oversized pumpkin, he never lets go of Seymour and the wagon, even when he goes through traffic and a gate.

Children (and adult fans) will love the sheet of thirty-one stickers included with the book. The stickers are not scenes from this particular story, but they show Splat and his friends being silly or having fun. They can easily be removed if this book is to be added to a public or school library collection.
 


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  Tanya Boudreau/2014 for curled up with a good kid's book  






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