The Great Pumpkin Switch

Tomorrow we are going to read The Great Pumpkin Switch by Megan McDonald.  It's not often that I find a book that ties into my current curriculum as well as this book does.  The Great Pumpkin Switch is a story within a story told by the author's grandfather in the late 1920's, just before the Great Depression.  The grandfather tells a story from his childhood, the time that he and his friend do not listen to his mom's directions.  As a result, his sister's huge pumpkin rolls down 34 steps and goes, "Splat."  Their sister is growing the pumpkin to win a "badge" for what would be considered Girl Scouts in our time.  They decide to buy a pumpkin from the local pumpkin merchant and switch it.  But, they have to pay 20 pennies for it.   How do they pull this all off? 

Here are the many strands that tie this book to our curriculum:

-The boys are making apple butter by stirring it with a huge spoon when the book begins.  We are going to taste apple butter at snack tomorrow.  We have just finished a unit on apples. 

-The boys throw pennies into the apple butter, "so the apple butter won't stick to the bottom," like the  mom recommends.  We have just started learning about pennies.

-Today we are starting a unit on pumpkins and the book teaches about what pumpkins need to grow big.

-In Writer's Workshop, we are writing Small Moment Stories and specifically focusing on how good stories have problems with resolutions; well, there was a huge problem in The Great Pumpkin Switch.

Unfortunately, The Great Pumpkin Switch is no longer in print!  Bummer. . .