While perusing the children’s section a few weeks ago, up
popped The Squampkin Patch by JT Petty with a Halloween sticker on the spine and a
bunch of pumpkins on the cover. How can an autumn/Halloween lover resist? She
can’t. That’s the surprising answer (I know, you’re shocked). I took it home with me, let it sit around for
a week, started reading and then trudged through.
The Squampkin Patch is the story of the Nasselrogt
children whose parents go missing in a department store, so the two end up in
an orphanage. As fictional orphanages go, this one is pretty typical, save for
the fact that the head of the orphanage makes the children work in his zipper
factory. Well, Milton and Chloe refuse to become zipper factory workers, so
they run away and end up in a small town. There they discover the Argyle house
and bakery which are now abandoned, and an extensive pumpkin patch. As Chole
and Milton get acquainted with the house and the neighbors, they stumble upon
the previous owner’s journal called “The Pumpkin/Chocolate Trials”. From
reading, the children discover that the pumpkin patch is actually a squampkin
patch, a hybrid pumpkin and squash variety. But the patch seems to purr, and
move. There are strange events surrounding the patch. On Halloween night, the
children discover that the patch is not only growing, but coming to life and
after them.
The writing is indicative of Lemony Snicket’s writing in The
Series of Unfortunate Events. The narrator is a bit pompous and, at the beginning,
defines words for you. The writing has the stuck up air of Snicket’s works, and
considering I’m not a fan of his series, I was not thrilled when I began
reading JT Petty’s work. Although I must admit that the book is written well and I think it challenges kids. Milton and Chloe are children that you feel you could meet anywhere and they were easy to read about, but I was not attached to them. The story itself was multifaceted, but I was not compelled by it. My favorite part about the book
was that at the bottom of each page was a drawing of a growing squampkin and it
was a flip book, so that you could “watch” it grow.
The book was fine, but I almost
just put it aside because I did not find the story intriguing and there was not
enough mystery and superstition as what I anticipated. If you like The
Series of Unfortunate Events, maybe JT Petty’s work will appeal to you, but
for me, I’ll avoid it in the future.
