Oh my gourd! How to carve a pumpkin plus 29 other fun Halloween activities

Anticipating the most ghoulish of American holidays, Jack Hallow (a pseudonym) gets all ready to maximize the pumpkin, whether as a decoration or an ingredient. Every one of these 30 pumpkin projects--cooked, carved, planted, concocted--comes with illustrations. First up are the six steps for creating a pumpkin "face," perfect family-friendly fare. More adult-like how-tos zero in on foodstuffs, from the usual (pumpkin pie and donuts) to healthier foods (risotto and a pumpkin seed log). What else to do with the orange gourd? Pumpkin puree becomes an ingredient in body scrubs and hair masks. The pumpkin shell becomes a punchbowl or, with some adept knife skills, a water canteen. And when all other ideas are exhausted, consider composting. This easy-to-do, seasonal crafts-o-rama will appeal to most every age.

Hallow debuts with an irreverent manual for making gourd-centric Halloween crafts and foods. Instructions on how to carve a pumpkin set the cheeky tone, with steps urging readers to "prepare" (collect necessary materials), "behead" (remove the crown), and "disembowel" (scoop out the seeds) the gourd. Recipes for pumpkin-based foods are ideal for Halloween parties, including chips made by frying peeled pumpkin slices in vegetable oil and "pump-choc brownies" created by mixing pureed pumpkin into brownie batter. Children will get a kick out of the gourd maracas (shellacked palm-size gourds with dried beans in them) and the "animal snack-o'-lantern" (a halved gourd filled with birdseed and hung from a tree). For adults, there's the "pumpkin body scrub"--a mixture of vanilla extract, pumpkin puree, olive oil, and brown sugar pitched for those who want a "champagne lifestyle on a lemonade budget"--and the "gourd water canteen" produced by hollowing a bottle gourd and treating the interior with beeswax. A few of the projects feel phoned in, such as composting or growing one's own gourds, but the kitschy humor amuses: "The fountain of youth and the place I most want to dip my crouton: pumpkin soup is the GOAT of the Stew Culinary Universe." This will help readers get in the Halloween spirit. (Sept.)