Pumpkin Picasso Perfects Puking Gourd

How do you fright and delight today's jaded kids? They've been toughened by YouTube. They've seen every "Saw" movie. They know all your tricks.

That's why Tom Nardone's "Extreme Halloween" (Perigee) is such a winner. Once you've treated the neighborhood to guacamole from the mouth of a puking pumpkin, you'll scare the tricks out of any prankster.

"Smiling jack-o'-lanterns just aren't as interesting as those that are barfing their guts out, or at least barfing a dip that you can serve to company," Nardone says.

Only the very brave -- or the very hungry -- are going to eat this stuff. That's what makes it festive, at least on Halloween.

Nardone is an undeniable Picasso of pumpkin carving, and a man with a devilishly twisted imagination. "Extreme Halloween" features such masterworks as the Baby-Eating Yard Monster, which is a gourd creatively stuffed with doll parts and stage blood.

"You always have to be thinking, 'How do I take this to the next level?' And that's what I try to do," Nardone says.

The book includes step-by-step instructions for turning 16 small pumpkins and 62 carrots into a giant "Creepy Millipede" -- a perfect lawn ornament, if you're planning a ghoulish gala.

It also features the recipe for "Roasted Squash Skulls" and lessons on how to make cherry Jell-O ooze from your toilet and bathtub, as if Jeffery Dahmer were your plumber.

With delightfully macabre humor, Nardone has turned extreme pumpkin carving into a career, showing off his skills on "Good Morning America" (where he will turn a 300-pound gourd into Godzilla on Saturday) and more than a dozen other TV shows.

"Each year, I ask myself, 'What's next?'," he says. "The truth is, there's always something. This year, I'm very into guacamole-vomiting pumpkins."

As for next year, Nardone says, "I'll start thinking about that on Nov. 1st."