Mark Kimball Moulton

Out walking in the woods one wintry December day, a family who habitually feeds the local animals comes across a reindeer in distress. Bringing this oddly buoyant cervine creature home, they warm him up, feed him and given him a place to rest. The child narrator is dismayed when their new friend disappears in the night, but on Christmas Day he learns that it was Donner, one of Santa's reindeer, that they had aided, thereby saving that holiday gift-giver's Christmas mission...

Pairing an immensely readable and engaging tale told in rhyme with sweet holiday illustrations that have a lovely, folksy feeling to them, Reindeer Christmas is an immensely appealing picture book for the holidays. Author Mark Kimball Moulton and illustrator Karen Hillard Good have produced a number of books together, many of them (at least the ones I have read) devoted to the holiday of Halloween, but I think this is my favorite of the lot. Everything here just works well together, and the result is a magical Christmas tale. Recommended for picture book readers who enjoy stories about Santa's reindeer, and their various adventures, as well as tales about animals (and their human friends) at the holidays.… (más)

Living on the farm with his grandparents, Mimi and Papa, Peter enjoys all of the seasons and crops, from spring strawberries to summer corn. His favorite though, are the fall pumpkins, and he spends much time cultivating the pumpkins in the patch, and one very special one outside of it. When harvest time comes, he helps everyone in town pick out the best pumpkin for them, including his new neighbor Meg, with whom he shares the very best pumpkin of all...

The Very Best Pumpkin is the third autumn / Halloween-themed picture-book I have read from author/illustrator team Mark Kimball Moulton and Karen Hillard Good, following upon Miss Fiona's Stupendous Pumpkin Pies and Twisted Sistahs, and I found it charming. As with the other two books, I enjoyed the artwork here—created using watercolor, coffee and bleach–quite a bit, finding it quirky and sweet. Good, who appears to have also worked as Karen Hillard Crouch, produces work which always reminds me a bit of Wendy Anderson Halperin, but with a slightly more naive, folksy feeling. In any case, I also enjoyed the narrative here, both because I appreciated the heartwarming themes of friendship and generosity, and because I think that the prose format worked better for Moulton's storytelling, than the somewhat awkward rhyming text in the other two picture books I have read from him. Recommended to anyone looking for contemporary autumn picture books that emphasize traditional values of hard work and stewardship, as well as kindness, and generosity to newcomers.… (más)