A spooky witch enchants a bunch of pumpkins to be her servants and most of them are named things like "Icky" and "Ooze" but one is named Christopher. All the other pumpkins decorate with spiderwebs and cook rotten rat pizza for dinner but Christopher decorates with pastel balloons and bakes pink cupcakes. The witch says he needs to be spooky and has to scare someone or she will kick him out so he scares HER with cute pink things.

This book rules! I love that nothing “happens” to Christopher to make him different, he just is that way even though he was made exactly the same as the other pumpkins. And he’s just unabashedly himself. I especially liked that he doesn’t actually get “acceptance” in the end, he just has fun scaring the witch away by being himself, because he is self-aware enough to know that who he is is scary to her, but never considers changing. ( )