Pumpkin knows your Name

The Pumpkin Knows Your Name is a cozy-spooky collection of three linked novellas set in Hollow Creek. In Part One, twelve-year-old Toby Graves finds a pumpkin carved with her name and a countdown. Her mother, Nora, vanished last Halloween. With nervous Malik and rival Hazel Pike, Toby discovers a ledger listing children taken by the Hollow King, an ancient spirit beneath the corn maze who feeds on memory. Nora had gone in Toby's place. The maze tests each friend: Malik walks through total darkness by talking about soup; Hazel faces a family that has forgotten her; Toby confronts her deepest fear-being erased. At the center, the Hollow King offers to free Nora if Toby gives her name. Instead, Toby carves her own face into the pumpkin and offers a true memory of love. The King remembers, releases the stolen names, and shrinks to an ordinary pumpkin. Nora returns, changed but present, and Toby plants a seed from the maze.Part Two follows Remy Okonkwo, who is grieving her brother Tunde. A group chat gains a new member: Milo, a boy dead for twenty years. Milo knows about Tunde and Remy's hidden hoodie. Remy, Priya, and Devon investigate the old computer lab, a cut yearbook page, and retired teacher Mr. Whitcomb, who accidentally locked Milo in the lab on Halloween 2003. Milo's floppy-disk project lists his favorite memories, including "e;the person who reads this."e; To free him, someone left behind must speak his full name before midnight. Remy finally says Tunde's name aloud, then Milo Everett James. Milo is released; his mother Sarah remembers him; a plaque honors him. Remy receives a final message from Tunde: "e;I'm okay."e;Part Three is gentler and sadder. June Alvarez's family is quietly grieving her grandmother Nana Rosa's dementia. A polite scarecrow, Mr. Bramble, leaves gifts: butterscotch, corn, acorn, and a wooden bird. He takes sadness away, but each gift binds the receiver to the Harvest Moon, a hungry spirit. June's little brother Theo accepts three gifts and begins turning to straw. June learns Mr. Bramble was Abel Bramble, her ancestor, who traded his grief to the Moon and became a scarecrow. To save Theo, June lets herself feel all her grief, hums Nana's family song, and helps Abel remember his name. He breaks the bonds, defeats the Moon, and fades. Nana remembers the song. Sunflowers grow, and Theo leaves candy for the scarecrow. All three stories argue that true memory, freely offered, outlasts fear and grief, and that small kindnesses keep the dead alive.