I’m taking part in a blog tour today to introduce you to the new picture book From Dark to Light written by young 12-year-old author, Isabella Murphy. I’m always keen to introduce my 7 year old son to new authors and with Halloween approaching fast, a book involving a little boy pumpkin named Pumpker sounded like a good way to combine the two ideas.
We meet Pumpker as a tiny pumpkin seed, sown along with his sisters Plumpalicious and Plumpilina by Mrs Smith, the farmer’s wife.
Poor Pumpker feels lonely as he has nothing in common with his sisters and he’s scared of the dark soil cave he finds himself in. We follow the story of From Dark to Light as the little pumpkin seed grows and finally he reaches the sunlight as a seedling. Growing ever larger, Pumpkin realises that to be truly happy he wants to find a family who will love him.
From Dark to Light is a charming tale, perfect for the pumpkin picking season ahead of Halloween. Will Pumpker get his wish? He wants to become a plump pumpkin, picked out by a family who will carve him and display him in their garden on Halloween.
It’s a lovely read that children will enjoy, and my son is already now asking when we will be preparing our pumpkin for the big day! I’ve included my Amazon Affiliate link below if you fancy reading this book with the kids yourself.
You can follow this blog tour tomorrow over on San Francisco Moms blog.
disclosure: we were sent this item in exchange for an honest review
We’ve teamed up with Pink Umbrella Books to offer you the chance to win From Light to Dark for yourselves along with a lovely mug. Complete the Gleam form below – good luck!
Terms and conditions:
(Please note that all entries will be checked against comments for validation).
Only the first step of this form is mandatory, all other steps are optional. Only one entry per person is allowed.
This giveaway is for UK residents only.
Once a winner is randomly picked, I will check if the winner has done what was requested and I will contact them, if they do not reply within one week, the prize will be allocated to another person. We cannot guarantee that the prize will arrive in time for Halloween.
The giveaway will close on 25th October 2017 at midnight.
Don’t forget to visit my Giveaways page for more great prizes on offer!
I carve turnips! (family tradition) and I cut out a scary face and use the scooped out turnip to make broth!
Yes, we carve pumpkins at Halloween. We carve spooky faces into them.
I do carve a pumpkin but it is usually rubbish, a face of some type but not great
We do, usually some simple scary face.
yes we do… but we choose a different design every year.. last year it was witches shoes and ghostbusters
I’ve never carved a pumpkin but this year I will do! I’m undecided what I will carve yet, probably a scary face!
i carve just the usual scary face, im not very artistic!
yes we carve pumpkins we stick to the usual face
Yes, we carve pumpkins, although it is done very badly. It is usually a just eyes and a mouth with very sharp teeth.
Yes, we carve pumpkins and it is always a face. We take out the flesh from the bottom first and make soups and veggie dishes.
I help my children to carve pumpkins, we usually just carve a face I’d love to do the character ones I’ve seen online but I’m not very artistic xXx
We did star wars theme
I never have though every year I say I will try it!
Yes just put some faces on them but I’m not very good at it! X
yes and this years will be Pennywise the clown, we like scary pumpkins
We usually buy one big pumpkin and carve a spooky face and i use the pumpkin flesh to make a soup as i hate wasting anything.
one pumpkin – ususally from my allotment!
We carve pumpkins and carve a scary face
No we don’t currently carve pumpkins.
No I don’t carve pumpkins
Yes we do, usually scary faces
i just normally let the kids go mental on them lol, and they normally look like aliens!!
we do i like to do flowers- i use the drill
we carve scary faces
We carve a scary face.
Yes we carve pumpkins although we have to help the children because they’re all under 5. My husband carved a Stormtrooper face last year which looked really cool!
My husband carves them with faces on.
i tried once a scary face it was awful
we carve pumkins with dracula faces however would rather carve a turnip but you cannot buy large ones anymore
Not as often as we used to
It’s usually whatever is “cool”
Theory and practice can be poles apart
Will be attempting scary monsters
Might end up as soup!
I’ve never carved a pumpkin; I’m just not very artistic!
the little ones draw the faces, then the older ones carve them
Yes, we carve pumpkins for Halloween and we usually do a scary face.
I don’t carve pumpkins
Yes sometimes as my little daughter loves to do so. We keep it simple with smiley faces and as she likes to call the carved pumpkin ‘happy face pumpkin’!
We don’t care pumpkins
Yes, silly faces
Yes different ones every year depending on characters kids like
Yep, we carve scary or funny faces….I’m not very good though lol
Yes, my daughter’s coming over to carve pumpkins with me – usually scary faces but she did a witches cat last year – she’s 24 but we just love Halloween so try to do something together x
I carve a pumpkin for Halloween but I can only do a very basic design but I really admire some of the fantastically detailed ones that people do!
we always carve pumpkins, last year my daughter did a cat, my one son did a bat and the other did frankinstein. i did a witch and my fiance did a spider..no idea what everyone is choosing this year tho x
Yes, but we’re not very adventurous with our designs!
Scary face
We do carve pumpkins for Halloween and the kids usually find a scary template to follow.
We use watermelons rather than pumpkins as they are easier to scoop the flesh out of and nobody in the family particularly likes the taste of pumpkin. We usually stick to various scary face designs
We do, usually basic Jack O’Lantern faces
I carve one every year, either harry potter of jack skellington x
We carve one pumpkin, my little boy likes a face that isn’t too scary!
Each of my children crave a pumpkin each, we tend to go for scary faces.
We carve a scary face into the pumpkin
I love carving pumpkins! Last year I carved some paw patrol characters and this year I want to do a unicorn for my daughter and s tractor for my son 🙂
Yes every year we carve pumpkins with my 9yr old. We normally do spooky faces but last year she did a puking pumpkin
We do carve pumpkins,usually spooky faces
we love to carve scary faces
Have never done it unfortunately
I’ve never done it, I know grandchildren do its most probably just a face
Yes we carve a bat, or we did a heart for world vision previously
We carve pumpkins every year. I let my daughter choose what she wants to carve.
Yes we do, and this year my son is getting married on the 28th October and all the guests have to carve a pumpkin to represent their relationship to the couple and they will line the path to church and then be put in the reception hall.
I carved one once when I was 16 and it was such hard work that I haven’t done it since!
yes, always carve pumpkins.. trying to get a bit more elaborate now thay are older!!
No we don’t carve a pumpkin
I try but the kids take over, they are better than me
Never carved a pumpkin but always wanted to maybe this year with my little niece
Never carved a pumpkin but would love to try and carve a spooky face
Yes I do – scary faces for halloween!
I carve pumpkins every year! Last year I tried to do a cat & this year I’m going to make a unicorn pumpkin!
We do the simplest face possible!
We carve a face!
Yes, big scary faces!
I do but I just normally go for scary faces
We try and carve a face, but it never looks very good!
yes, and my daughter wants to have a witch on it!
my husband does the carving – a face
Yes, we carve pumpkins at Halloween.
We try to carve a pumpkin, but it never turns out right.
Only ever carved one pumpkin, great fun though!
I carve pumpkins every year and put them on the doorstep to encourage kids to knock so my wife and son can give out the sweets – I usually just carve the triditional scary faces
never carved one it wasn’t really celebrated like it is now
No, I’ve never carved a pumpkin in my life.
Yes. I get the kids to draw their own designs on them and then we carve that.
never carved a pumpkin
we have only been carving the last 2 years but i let the kids draw there design on the pumpkin and i carv it out for them this year we have one ghost and one vampire
Sometimes we do. In the last few years we have carved two pumpkins – a fatty batty and a face.
I love to carve animal pictures/scenes into pumpkins!
We always carve a pumpkin and every year my partner tries to carve one even better than the previous year x
No,I have never carved a pumpkin for Halloween. Prefer to make a delicious soup with them.
We do carve pumpkins. My son decided on a cat for his one this year and I carved BOO into mine as it is only a little one 🙂 x
We carved pumpkins one year but it caused so many arguments, we haven’t done it since! Perhaps we need to try again.
We haven’t yet but we will
I love carving with the kids so whatever they like they make but I usually get quite a small pumpkin so it’s easier to use and keep that one in the windowsill with a candle inside so it doesn’t get ruined and then I’ll carve one of a face or anything that takes my fancy, like one year i carved a cat which I was really proud of and I’d put that one outside! 🙂 Fingers crossed! 🙂
We used to carve turnips as kids. I might try carve a pumpkin this year.
My son always comes up with challenging pumpkin designs. Last years were Pokemon themed!
I used to but don’t any more
No i have weak wrists so struggle with that.
Yes we carve tinkerbell and lots of stars <3
Usually a traditional spooky face and also some stars and moons around it x
We carve pumpkins different scary expressions! x x x
we do sometime but just with a simple scary face
We never really carved pumpkins but I would have gone with something traditional if we did
We carve funny faces, I tried a witch on a broomstick last year but it didn’t turn out so good!
We usually just do the faces, as its something my 3 young boys can do by themselves and they feel so proud no matter what they look like 🙂
We carve pumpkins x
We don’t usually carve pumpkins as my two are not really into Halloween, but if we did we would probably go for a smiley face or something to do with star wars!
No I don’t carve pumpkins I wouldn’t mind giving it a go though