After a jack-o-lantern's night in the spotlight, it gets discarded in the garden, where different animals, bugs, fungi, worms, slime molds, and microbes feed off of it and break it down into the soil, where its nutrients help a pumpkin seed grow.

When his beloved jack-o'-lantern starts to decompose, Tim puts it outside and watches it transform from pumpkin—to seed—to pumpkin again. The first pumpkin Tim ever carved was fierce and funny, and he named it Jack. When Halloween was over and the pumpkin was beginning to rot, Tim set it out in the garden and throughout the weeks he watched it change. By spring, a plant began to grow! Will Hubbell's gentle story and beautifully detailed illustrations give an intimate look at the cycle of life.

Baked, stewed, or mashed, pumpkins remind Rebecca Estelle of the Great Depression when that was all her family had to eat. When an enormous pumpkin falls off a truck and smashes in her yard, Rebecca Estelle devises a clever way to get rid of the unwanted crop that sprouts.

It's big. It's orange. But what is it? When Field Mouse and Squirrel find something big, round, and orange in the middle of the road, it looks kind of familiar. Skunk is positive it's a lamp, and Rabbit thinks it looks like a snack, but no one knows for sure. Luckily, there's one thing they can all agree on: it's the life of the party! Discover all of the ways you can use a pumpkin in this adorable fall adventure.

In Really Rotten Truth About Composting, students will learn about the biological processes involved with composting, including a breakdown of primary, secondary, and tertiary level consumers. Readers will love discovering new information in this chapter book while also reinforcing learned skills with comprehension and extension activities. The Let’s Explore Science series allows readers to dive into the world of fascinating science-related topics while strengthening reading comprehension skills. Each 48-page title features full-color photographs, real-world applications, content vocabulary, and more to effectively engage young learners.

Each year Americans start one million new businesses, nearly 80 percent of which fail within the first five years. Under such pressure to stay alive—let alone grow—it’s easy for entrepreneurs to get caught up in a never-ending cycle of “sell it—do it, sell it—do it” that leaves them exhausted, frustrated, and unable to get ahead no matter how hard they try. This is the exact situation Mike Michalowicz found himself in when he was trying to grow his first company. Although it was making steady money, there was never very much left over and he was chasing customers left and right, putting in twenty-eight-hour days, eight days a week. The punishing grind never let up. His company was alive but stunted, and he was barely breathing. That’s when he discovered an unlikely source of inspiration—pumpkin farmers. After reading an article about a local farmer who had dedicated his life to growing giant pump­kins, Michalowicz realized the same process could apply to growing a business. He tested the Pumpkin Plan on his own company and transformed it into a remarkable, multimillion-dollar industry leader. First he did it for himself. Then for others. And now you. So what is the Pumpkin Plan? Plant the right seeds: Don’t waste time doing a bunch of different things just to please your customers. Instead, identify the thing you do better than anyone else and focus all of your attention, money, and time on figuring out how to grow your company doing it. Weed out the losers: In a pumpkin patch small, rotten pumpkins stunt the growth of the robust, healthy ones. The same is true of customers. Figure out which customers add the most value and provide the best opportunities for sustained growth. Then ditch the worst of the worst. Nurture the winners: Once you figure out who your best customers are, blow their minds with care. Discover their unfulfilled needs, innovate to make their wishes come true, and overdeliver on every single promise. Full of stories of other successful entrepreneurs, The Pumpkin Plan guides you through unconven­tional strategies to help you build a truly profitable blue-ribbon company that is the best in its field.

Pumpkin Patch takes emergent readers on a trip to the pumpkin patch while providing them with a supportive first nonfiction reading experience. Carefully crafted text uses high-frequency words, repetitive sentence patterns, and strong visual references to support emergent readers, making sure they aren't facing too many challenges at once. Pumpkin Patch includes Tools for Teachers and Caregivers and a Let's Review! question and image, as well as introductory nonfiction features such as labels, a table of contents, words to know, and an index. Pumpkin Patch is part of Jump!'s Around Town series.