Synopsis
Sparkling with rich autumn watercolors and magical detail, this book introduces little Clee and her blanket, a true and trusted friend. But when her father's shivering pumpkin patch needs help to survive the frost, Clee understands that it needs her blanket more than she does.
Children's Literature
Clee was born during the Northern Lights season. She was given-no one could remember how-a patchwork blanket th she has loved forever. The blanket made baby Clee look like a pumpkin when she was wrapped up in it, and the "pumpkin blanket" was what it was called. The blanket protected Clee from prowling coyotes when she was three. It comforted her when she was sent from the dinner table for letting a worm crawl from her shirt pocket when she was four. Now she is five, ready to start school after Christmas, but she still takes the blanket everywhere. Can her parents figure out a painless way for her to give it up? Her father may have an answer. Twelve pumpkins are in the garden. They'll all be jack-o-lanterns when it's time. When a frost threatens the pumpkins, Clee's father asks her for one square from her blanket to protect one pumpkin. She gives the first square, then another, and another, until they are all used, and all the pumpkins are protected. The night before Halloween, when Clee and her father harvest the pumpkins, the squares of the old blanket are carried off by the wind, sewn together by the stars, and wrapped around a "mother-of-pearl pumpkin." Fanciful and lovely, it's a beautiful book.