Make it stop Mommy

Time for another creepy kid's book. I really like Eric Rohmann's illustrations. His My Friend Rabbit is gorgeous and has a nice message, which is your friends are jackasses that will get you in trouble but its all good since they mean well. Given my love of that book and also his Time Flies, I figured I would give Pumpkinhead a try. No, no this story does not concern Ed Harley's quest for vengeance but rather a boy with a pumpkin for his head. So you're thinking this is a nice story about accepting people who are different than us. Actually it is about a boy whose head is taken away by a bat and dropped in the sea. It floats around awhile and then a fisherman finds it. Thankfully, Mom finds her son's head at the fishmonger and is able to reattach to the (amazingly) still functioning body.

This story creeped the fuck out of me. His head is taken and gets lost and his mom finds it in the market! You read this to kids?! I know it is not literal, but metaphor isn't really huge in the preschool set and Rohmann's illustrations are very effective, which added to my dread. If you like gorgeous kid's art and creepy stories this one is for you.