Charlie is the smallest kid in his class. When his teacher brings in three pumpkins and challenges everyone to guess how many seeds are inside each, the results are surprising—to Charlie and to everyone else. It turns out that size has nothing to do with how many seeds are in a pumpkin. For Charlie, who alone among his classmates has chosen to count the seeds in the smallest pumpkin, it’s a sweet revelation. By chance, his small, dark, many-lined pumpkin turns out to have the most seeds of all. Margaret McNamara’s pleasing story integrates math (the kids count their pumpkin seeds by twos, fives, and tens) and scientific observation as their teacher encourages the class to comment on how the pumpkins differ on the outside—which turns out to be the best prediction of what they will find on the inside. (Ages 5–8)

Mr. Tiffin and his students explore skip counting and estimation in a fun pumpkin-themed classroom experiment! This book makes a wonderful read-aloud companion to any math or science curriculum, and it's a fun way to reinforce counting skills at home.

"How many seeds are in a pumpkin?" Mr. Tiffin asks his class as they gather around the big, medium, and small pumpkins on his desk. Robert, the biggest kid, guesses that the largest one has a million seeds; Elinor, sounding like she knows what she's talking about, guesses the medium one has 500 seeds; and Anna, who likes even numbers better than odd ones, guesses that the little one has 22. Charlie, the smallest boy in the class, doesn't have a guess.

Counting pumpkin seeds is messy business, but once the slimy job is done, to everyone's surprise, the smallest pumpkin has the most seeds! As Charlie happily exclaims, "Small things have a lot going on inside of them."

And don’t miss the newest addition to the Mr. Tiffin series, The Dinosaur Expert!