Comments for The Halloween Tree

The Halloween Tree: 10/24/07

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.

Read the reviews at Things Mean A Lot, Callista.

books | fiction | ray bradbury

Comments (3)

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Comment #1: Thursday, October, 25, 2007 at 08:54:38

Xakara

Although it's from a different post, I have to say that The Halloween Tree is my favorite Ray Bradbury story as well. I even have the animated movie with Bradbury as the Narrator and Leonard Nimoy and Mr. Moundshroud. :)"

Comment #2: Thursday, October, 25, 2007 at 09:16:38

Pussreboots

I do remember the animated movie. I've seen it a couple of time, although it's been years. I had wanted to mention it last night but then it completely slipped my mind. "

Comment #3: Thursday, November, 1, 2007 at 17:17:59

Callista

I just read The Halloween Tree and Something Wicked This Way Comes this past week and although I love The Halloween Tree I hated the other. I don't like Ray's style of writing. He focused so much on detail and description that I had trouble even understanding what was going on. A lot of the time I had no idea what was happening. "