I think Pumpkin Angel is to Halloween what Santa Claus is to Christmas. First of all, Pumpkin Angel loves, loves, loves pumpkin pie. That's how she got her name. Every autumn Pumpkin Angel flies down to Earth to bless the pumpkins and make them grow. On Halloween, she unlocks the Doomsday Door, allowing ghosts, goblins, and ghouls to come out of the underworld and trick-or-treat with real-life boys and girls. Then she makes sure these creatures return to the underworld, with lots of treats, and locks them in again with her skeleton key. At dawn the next day Pumpkin Angel flies back to Heaven in her pumpkin chariot with a sky-high stack of pumpkin pies.

I am an author, not an artist, so I am just telling the story in words, not pictures. I expect parents to read my book together with their children. I hope they will imagine the pictures, characters, and scenes from their own ethnic, religious, family, or other background. I think that parents who read my book aloud with their children are like the storytellers of ancient times. They paint the story in a child's mind with words alone.

Children should know that in today's world women like Santa Christina can be just as important as men like Santa Claus. Tell your kids that Santa Christina is now delivering half the toys.

Yes. After more than a hundred years, there are more and more boys and girls all over the world than ever before. The toy-delivery job has become too big for Santa Claus and his reindeer.