Name: The Halloween Tree
Rating: 3.492424242424242 (66 reviews)
ISBN: 9780375803017

Ray Bradbury

A group of boys dressed in Halloween costumes visit a deserted house where they discover a mysterious pumpkin tree.

The Halloween Tree

Sarah Sammis

The Halloween Tree is my favorite Ray Bradbury book; Something Wicked This Way Comes comes in at a close second. It is another of a short list of books I've read more times than I can count. With Halloween coming up, I enjoyed a nice afternoon of rereading it.

Ray Bradbury's tale is the Halloween equivalent to Dickens's A Christmas Carol. Bradbury cements this comparison by giving Moundshroud's house a "Marley knocker." While the three Christmas spirits are there to redeem Scrooge so that he can save Tim Cratchet, here a group of friends must face their fears to save the life of their friend Pipkin.

In only 150 pages (with illustrations), Bradbury takes the boys through a brief history of Halloween and all the traditions that have come to make the holiday as it is celebrated in the United States. The boys travel around the world and through time over the course of six hours.

If you haven't read this departure from Bradbury's usual style of story telling, read it.

Krystyna 

This was a pretty quick read. It is short, fun, and perfect for reading around Halloween or within the month of October. The illustrations in this edition really added to the story for me. The illustrations were great! This story was very atmospheric and was a delight to read. The writing was great; it was 
unique without being complex. I would recommend reading it during October for sure.

C. J. Daley 

I really liked this cover, and of course it’s considered a Halloween classic, so I felt like I had to read it. If this is a favorite of yours, I’m glad you enjoy it, this is my opinion and it isn’t meant to battle or diminish yours!

Honestly, I’m not sure if it’s me, or my mindset when I picked this up, but with this being a classic Halloween story I really expected something else. This kind of boils down to a group of children getting a haunted history lesson all while their best friend might actually die at the outcome? And then with the ending?! I’ll keep it spoiler free, but I could see this easily in adult horror, but for kids???

Even with this being for children I kind of felt myself lost and confused for a vast majority of this book. The closer and closer it got to the end, the less and less I wanted to keep reading honestly. That doesn’t happen to me often. 

Personally a 2/5*, just wasn’t for me.

Haley Murray

ofgodzeus

** spoiler alert **
           It's just not for me. I read one third and then started getting bored so I moved on to the audiobook. I liked it even less then. 

It's something I would give a little child to introduce them to the concept of Halloween or maybe to help them boost up their English or something. But I can't find any pleasure in reading it myself. The thing is, I usually enjoy this kind of story myself but I just don't see me finishing this one, unfortunately. It just started annoying me towards the end and I couldn't bear read or listen to more word of it. It felt as if it was nonesense, and not in a good way xD

PS. I dropped it when Pipkin started saying something along the lines of "meet me in the air" I was like that's it, I'm not tolerating more of this. I don't like it. Drop.

Halloween, die Nacht der Totenbeschwo rung und -besa nftigung, wird fu r 8 Jungen aus einer amerikanischen Kleinstadt zu einer unheimlichen Zeitreise.

Roman

Halloween

Sonja H

Auf den ersten Blick ist dies eine nette Halloweengeschichte für Kinder, die sich gern gruseln. Die Figuren sind liebenswert, es gibt spannende, aufregende und schaurige Stellen und man kann das Buch gut an einem Abend lesen oder vorlesen.

Doch Ray Bradbury unterhält nicht nur, er lehrt uns etwas über dieses Fest vor Allerheiligen, das mittlerweile auch in Deutschland immer mehr Beachtung findet.
Er zeigt, dass Menschen schon zu allen Zeiten Rituale hatten, um den Tod zu huldigen und die Geister, die sie fürchteten, zu beschwichtigen.
So reisen wir mit den Kindern von den Höhlenmenschen, durch das alte Ägypten bis hin in das moderne Mexiko und erfahren, wie jede Epoche halloweenartige Traditionen pflegte.

Die Begegnung mit dem Tod zeigt den Kindern, wie wichtig und wertvoll das Leben ist und so treffen sie am Ende eine Entscheidung, die ihnen ein wenig von ihrer Lebenszeit stiehlt, dafür aber einen ihrer Freunde vor dem vorzeitigen Sterben bewahrt.

„Halloween“ ist ein Buch, das nicht unterschätzt werden sollte. Es mag kindlich wirken, doch es beinhaltet gute Gedanken, die es wert sind, gelesen und mit den Jüngsten geteilt und besprochen zu werden.

Celeste Richardson

Full review now posted!

This was such a perfect little book to help foster the Halloween spirit.

Ray Bradbury is a master of atmosphere. One of the most atmospheric Halloween books I’ve ever read is Something Wicked This Way Comes, and this tiny book spins just a compelling a spell. Bradbury just had an amazing grasp on what makes Halloween special. It’s a little dated, but in my opinion that just upped the nostalgia factor.

A group of boys is taken on a journey through time and space to understand the inspirations behind their favorite holiday. The history of Halloween has never been more fun than it is here, as presented by Mr. Moundshroud. Centuries are jumped through, continents are explored, and the ways different peoples honor their dead are revealed to these boy who’ve never seen any significance in Halloween beyond the fun of the costumes and trick-or-treating. As each boy learns the significance of their chosen costume, the essence of Halloween becomes more clear to them. 

However, learning about Halloween isn’t the only purpose behind the boys’ unusual adventure. Their leader, Pipkin, has been kidnapped and taken through history, leading the boys on a wild Pipkin chase. But even as they search for their friend, the other boys begin to grasp that something is very wrong with Pipkin in the real world, and that this supernatural journey with Mr. Moundshroud might be their only hope of saving him.

There were things about The Halloween Tree that reminded me of other books I’ve loved, like The Graveyard book and A Monster Calls. It was sweet and funny and sad, and it basked in a children’s love of the spooky and being scared just a little. This would be such a fun book to read to an upper elementary or middle school class during the month of October, or even just to your own child to get them in the Halloween spirit while maybe teaching them just a little bit at the same time. It was just exactly right, spooky and fun and educational without feeling like a lesson.

For more of my reviews, as well as my own fiction and thoughts on life, check out my blog, Celestial Musings.

Kaley Catron

This was fast. And different but I did quite enjoy it, it was a fun quick read.

Como cada año en la noche de Halloween, un grupo de niños se disfrazan y salen a la calle para pedir premio o prenda. Cuando van a buscar al último chico de la pandilla, Pipkin, lo encuentra alicaído, y éste les pide que le esperen en la casa Fantasmal de la Cañada. Allí les aguarda un peculiar personaje que les descubrirá los orígenes de la fiesta de Halloween.

El arbol de las brujas / The Halloween Tree

Maribel González

El árbol de las brujas es un libro para niños, entretenido y muy cortito, que se lee en dos ratos (incluso en uno). El libro habla de Halloween, de su origen según diferentes culturas. La trama está protagonizada por unos niños, muy adorables y aventureros que, con la compañía de un señor llamado Mortajosaurio, emprenden un viaje por el tiempo para salvar a su amigo Pipkin. A mí me ha faltado algo, me esperaba explicaciones más elaboradas sobre el inicio de Halloween y me he encontrado con un paseo por la superficie. Lo que cuenta Ray Bradbury son cosas que ya conocía y quizás por eso no me ha gustado tanto. Sin embargo, me quedo con el mensaje sobre la amistad incondicional que hay entre las líneas de esta historia. 

Aprobado queda con un 2'5 sobre 5.

Anastaciya

Thaddeus Cortez

liz long

Make storytime a little spookier this fall with fantasy master Ray Bradbury as he takes readers on a riveting trip though space and time to discover the true origins of Halloween. Join the shadowy Carapace Clavicle Moundshroud as he takes eight trick-or-treaters on an unforgettable journey to find their missing friend, Pip. Travel through space and time, from the tombs of ancient Egypt to the gargoyles of Notre-Dame Cathedral, all the way to the cemeteries of Mexico on el Día de Los Muertos, the Day of the Dead. Is Pip still alive? And if so, can his friends save him from a ghastly fate before it’s too late? "If you want to know what Halloween is, or if you simply want an eerie adventure, take this mystery history trip. You couldn't ask for better than master fantasizer Ray Bradbury." --The Boston Globe

The Halloween Tree

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