The Pumpkin Runner

“Nearly all the sheep ranchers in Blue Gum Valley rode horses or drove jeeps to check on their sheep. But Joshua Summerhayes liked to run… with Yellow Dog trailing behind him.”
For fifty years, fueled by the pumpkins from his special pumpkin patch, Joshua has been running to check on newborn lambs and rescue injured sheep. Folks say he’s getting too old to run around a ten-thousand-acre ranch, but Aunt Millie knows better. “As long as he’s got pumpkins to eat, he’ll keep running,” she says.
Then Joshua hears about the Koala-K, a race from Melbourne to Sydney. With Yellow Dog at his side and Aunt Millie cooking up his favorite pumpkin dishes, Joshua figures they can “see two cities and get in a little run as well.” People laugh when old Joshua shows up in his overalls and orange gumboots, calmly nibbling a slice of pumpkin. But before long, folks start to take notice… especially Damien Dodgerelle, who everyone says is a shoo-in to win.
Inspired by a true story, Marsha Diane Arnold packs plenty of excitement and emotion into her tale of a humble hero whose sheer love of a good run makes him a winner. With Brad Sneed’s vibrant, energetic illustrations, The Pumpkin Runner is a shoo-in to win readers from New York to Sydney.

Kirkus- Noting her story’s origins in the true tale of a 61-year-old Australian farmer who beat much younger runners in a 542-mile race from Sydney to Melbourne in 1983, Arnold (The Chicken Salad Club), pens a folksy, aw-shucks piece.
Joshua Summerhayes, unlike other ranchers, relies on his feet instead of a vehicle to check on his flocks. He attributes his endurance to the home-grown pumpkins he consumes. When a flier about a $10,000 racing prize blows across his porch, Joshua borrows a friend’s jeep and loads it up with pumpkins, his dog, and Aunt Millie, and heads for the starting line. At first, onlookers laugh at Joshua’s overalls and boots, but as he gradually overtakes all the other runners, their laughs turn to cheers. Sneed’s drawings are done in a midwestern vernacular style, with the undulating rhythm of Thomas Hart Benton. They place this legend of along-distance, Down Under runner somewhere between a tall tale and a picture-perfect front-porch anecdote.