On the sidewalk outside a city shop is a cheery display of bright orange pumpkins. But one pumpkin knows he’s different. He’s a stemless pumpkin. A stumpkin. The shopkeeper’s black cat likes Stumpkin, but no one else seems to want him as one by one other pumpkins are chosen and later appear as jack- o-lanterns in the windows of nearby apartments. When even a gnarled yellow gourd is taken home to be transformed into a Halloween visage before the shop closes on Halloween night, Stumpkin’s future looks pretty grim... Humor and pathos are perfectly balanced in a picture book that is also a masterful pairing of words and pictures. The illustrations rendered in gouache, pencil, ink, and brush marker are black-and-white on cream-colored pages, with pumpkin-orange (of course) and hints of green for stems (or stump) as accent. The humans are all faceless silhouettes, the pumpkins incredibly expressive. The narrative is perfectly paced, guileless, and open-hearted—of course we care about Stumpkin, whose story is poignant, and sweetly triumphant. (Ages 4–9)