To this day, Ray Bradbury is my favorite author. With savory prose and big ideas, I haven’t read a Bradbury yet that I didn’t like. In Dandelion Wine, he perfectly captured the essence of youthful summers. In The Halloween Tree, he does the same for Halloween. This instantly became a book I aim to add to my Spooky Season rotation as often as I can read it. Few stories capture the magic of Halloween for a child as this one.
A fast-moving, eerie tale set on Halloween night…
Eight costumed boys running to meet their friend Pipkin at the haunted house outside town encounter instead the huge and cadaverous Mr. Moundshroud. As Pipkin scrambles to join them, he is swept away by a dark Something, and Moundshroud leads the boys on the tail of a kite through time and space to search the past for their friend and the meaning of Halloween.
Maybe the most endearing quality of The Halloween Tree is that it’s just 145 pages. Theoretically, if you didn’t have a whole lot going on, you could probably slam this thing on Halloween before the kids step out to trick or treat. Or, more likely, if you’re a grown ass adult with a real job like me, you can sprinkle it out across a few days leading up to Halloween. But, Bradbury certainly gets the vibes right with this novel and immerses readers in an atmosphere that exudes ‘Halloween.’
The plot does move rather quickly, but it’s not so winding that one cannot keep up. As is the case with most of Bradbury’s work, the prose is tight, the characters are memorable, and there’s plenty of meaning to glean from it. But, where I think this novel truly excels is in how it is a sort of celebration of the holiday itself. Bradbury gives us a crash course on Halloween and how it came to be what it is known as today, making The Halloween Tree equal parts history lesson and fun, festive Halloween tale.
Stoney Keeley is the Editor in Chief of The SoBros Network, second on Football & Other F Words, analyst for Stacking The Inbox, and a Dogs Playing Poker on velvet connoisseur. He is a strong supporter of Team GSD, #BeBetter, and ‘Minds right, asses tight.’ “Big Natural” covers the Tennessee Titans, the NFL Draft, Nashville, Yankee Candle, and a whole wealth of nonsense. Follow on Twitter @StoneyKeeley.
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