Mr. Hermit Miser and the Neighborly Pumpkin

A Plumfield Kids Book Review by Elsa, age 11

In a day when pumpkin pies are bought from the store, this book made me wish I knew how to make a “rich, spicy, luscious, crisp pumpkin pie.” I am not the greatest judge of children’s books but I’d say this one is a great story. The illustrations are simply stupendous. For instance, in the pictures on pages 18, and 31, the pumpkins look somewhat like they have faces. Also on the cover you can vaguely see a face on the pumpkin in the lower right corner. This seems to allow the child the opportunity to imagine the pumpkins as characters.

Frankenstein

This is not a story about a monster. Or at least not the kind of monster I was anticipating. There is no brainless creature terrorizing the countryside. The “Monster” was a created being with human thought and reasoning, emotion, and the capacity for ethics. But, the real monster in this novel is Dr. Frankenstein himself who created this being and then cruelly abandoned him. It is a riveting tale of the human condition.