"We're better than vegetables!" the fruits argued. The fruits and vegetables are at war because they wanted to know who was healthier. Who will win, will anyone win? Read to find out.

The Battle between Fruits and Vegetables Vegetables

So I guess this is the history of pumpkins. Maybe? So the god of crops, Ceres, decided Halloween was a bore and needed something to liven it up, so she thought about what new plant she could make to liven it up. "Well, some creepy faces would work, but I can't make plants grow into faces. Uggggghhhh!" Ceres thought. "But I can make a plant that can be carved. It will be orange, round, and called a pumpkin." So just like that the pumpkin was born and the pumpkins inspired costumes for Halloween, so Ceres's plan worked.

The pomegranates were very tired and one even admitted "Sometimes I wish the apples were dead." "What?!" "Keep it down over there." "Let's just go to sleep." "Yeah!" So just like that, they fell asleep. Then the farmer came and picked up some pomegranates and sighed, "You'll be perfect for my friend's new farm. All he has are some pumpkins." When the pomegranates heard this they easily let go of the ground and let the farmer pick them. It was a long and bumpy ride to the new farm and they wondered what pumpkins were. "I wonder if pumpkins are food?" "Of course they are food because you can only farm food." "Actually, you can farm animals." "Don't actually me." "Well, it's true." "But I do think that they are foods though and if they are healthy, then they are fruits." "Be quiet. I want to go to sleep!"

"I can't believe what just happened!" raged the broccoli. "The fruits destroyed our crops with our own idea! Who is responsible for this foolish idea!?" "Um, you are the vegetables that came up with the idea." The broccoli raged at the little carrot and sent her to jail. Later he would know that was a big mistake, but for now, he just threw her in carrot jail. I know carrot jail-- what kind of world is this? Just know that I am not making this up. Well, how do you know this? Is what I can practically hear you saying. Well, I know because I am a fruit and have a vegetable and pumpkin friend. Look I don't know if you believe me or not, but let's get on with the history of pumpkins and how they are fruits.

The broccoli tried to find a way to get the fruits back but it took them one more week to figure out an attack that they thought would put the fruits in second place. All the while the fruits were planning more attacks as backups just in case they got bored or if the vegetables struck again.&nbsp; The vegetables now put their plan into action. They brought cows to the new planting field and set them free.

"Hi, Pumpkin! We want to bring you to our farm with us," announced the cauliflower. "Will you come?" "Yes! I so want to travel and see the world." "Well, what are you waiting for? Come on!"

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Long ago there was a fight between the fruits and the vegetables. They all lived on a farm together. At the time no one knew about pumpkins. The fight first started when the fruits bragged, "Ha, we're the healthiest because we're always bought and you disgusting vegetables are almost never bought." The vegetables argued, "We are never bought because kids don't think we taste good but in fact, we are more healthy than the fruits." The fruit leaders, the apples, decided to prank the vegetables by putting bugs on them. When the vegetables realized that they had bugs on them they declared war on the fruits. When the fruits found out they also declared war on the vegetables.

The apples and the broccoli came on stage and made a truce. The fruits and vegetables changed by becoming nicer to each other. They learned that just because they are different, that doesn't mean they can't be friends. Being friends with people who are different from you can be fun because you get to try out new things.

Coming to your library soon! Farm Catastrophes: The Runaways. If you remember the kids that ran away in this book, you'll want to read the sequel to find out what happened.

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Then they saw the new farmer come and explain, "This is how you prepare a plant for being eaten, kiddos." "What did he say?" asked a frightened pomegranate. "Are we going to be killed?" "Yes, what's wrong with that?" answered another pomegranate. The pomegranate fainted as the farmer showed the kids how to find the perfect pomegranate for the right job. "The really soft pomegranates taste horrible and are perfect to use as fertilizer, the really hard ones taste great but are too hard so we plant them, and the perfect ones for eating are these," the farmer explained and handed each kid a soft but hard one. "Now you try and find one each for the right job." The kids each gave the farmer the right ones and he was amazed. The kids had to be cheating, right? Well, it turns out they did. They could talk to fruit! The farmer heard them talking about it one night. "Well, that was easy! We just needed to ask the fruits what the good ones were." The farmer stormed in and blew up with fury. He told them they would never be farmers unless they actually picked the fruit with the farmer watching.

So they all went to sleep and in the morning they saw what pumpkins were and they were glad but confused, also they were really amazed by how pretty this farm was. "So are they fruits or not?" "I don't know." "Well, how will we find out?" "We wait." So they all waited and some of the pomegranates were planted. You know I would think that plants wouldn't like to be planted, but surprisingly the fruits and vegetables in this story like to be planted. Weird.😕

The reason they did this is that if the cows made the land harder, the fruits would not be able to grow or be planted. When the fruits noticed they weren't being planted anymore, they sent the plums to investigate. When the plums came back they told the fruits there were cows in their field. The fruits were furious and they knew it was the vegetables. The apples demanded that the pomegranates move the cows at once. The apples also demanded, "The cows are to be put in the vegetable field and there are to be no questions asked!"

They got the pumpkin to go with them and she brought only her diary. They set out to the parking lot to wait for the new arrival of more fruits and vegetables. They waited and waited for the car to come so they could climb on and go back to the farm. When a car came they got on and left. They got to the farm and saw it wasn't their own so they waited for the farmer to leave. Again a week went by with them just sitting there. Then the farmer left again. Back to the other new farm. They had to wait only for a day this time and they got in this other car. It took them two hours to get to the farm and--wait for it-- it was their farm. Next, they had to get the fruits and the vegetables in the same room without them fighting and such. They managed to get them there without fighting. Next, they introduced the pumpkin and asked the pumpkin to tell about herself. "I am a pumpkin and I am a fruit... but I am as healthy as a... vegetable like all fruits are I think," stammered the pumpkin. "Also... my name... is Lucy."

The kids were very sad because they couldn't speak to fruits or veggies. They were just joking. "I wish Dad could read our minds or at least know when we're joking," said the girl. "Should we run away?" the boy asked. "Yes," replied the girl. So the kids ran away...

Madelyn Jurgens is a 10-year-old girl who goes to AFNorth Elementary. This book was the first book of many she would write for Jechco Publishing. She loves cats, wolves, and foxes. Her hobbies are playing piano and playing outside. She has a very annoying 12-year-old brother, a dad, a mom, and a dog. He is a miniature schnauzer named Banjo. She has lived in Alaska, Oklahoma, South Carolina, and Germany, so far. Also, Madelyn put a cat picture in the book did you find it?

War

The first attack the vegetables pulled was putting worms next to the apples so that no one would buy them. Then the vegetables told them that they weren’t healthy anymore because no one bought them. The apples told the vegetables, "We aren’t being bought because we have worms." They all tried their best to get the worms out and clean the apples. It took them several days to do so and the vegetables didn’t help.&nbsp; The pears started to work on a plan to attack the vegetables back. They finally decided to put up signs around the farm saying that vegetables were very unhealthy and signs that vegetables tasted like fertilizer. When the vegetables saw the signs they immediately took them down. It took the vegetables one week to get the signs down. The fruits thought that would teach the vegetables a lesson, but it didn’t.&nbsp;

The cauliflower is a descendent of the wild mustard flower. Weird, right? Well, the cauliflowers were also picked to go to this new farmer's farm and they were happy because they had heard of pumpkins and knew that if they brought the pumpkins home, they could either stop the war or win the war. When they got in the car they saw that the farmer had a map and it said it would take them two hours to get to this new farm. "This is going to take a while. Might as well take a nap," exclaimed a sleepy cauliflower. When they arrived they saw a patch filled with pumpkins and they knew that they were pumpkins because they had never seen that food before.