The Halloween Tree
by Ray Bradbury
The Halloween Tree is set in an ordinary town, full of ordinary boys who run around in sneakers and drink soda pop and dare each other to have adventures. But on Hallowe’en, the best day of the year for these boys, there is something terribly wrong with their friend Pipkin - the most adventurous of them all. The gang of boys stop by his house to pick him up for Trick or Treating, and he’s not dressed in a costume. He looks awful. Is he sick? Pip tells his friends he’ll meet them at a scary old house on the other side of the Ravine. And that’s where their adventure starts.
Podcast
Kimberly Hatch Harrison discusses The Halloween Tree
The Halloween Tree
by Ray Bradbury
This book, The Halloween Tree, is a supernatural story. There’s some time travel, and fantasy elements, and a historical unraveling of the myths we may not realize we are retelling with our Hallowe’en traditions.
“I associate Ray Bradbury with Hallowe’en - and that’s not by accident. Every Hallowe’en, he would visit Vroman’s Bookstore in Pasadena, and he would read to us from The Halloween Tree. He would be very formal - suit jacket and tie, sitting at a table, reading. Underneath the table, he was wearing shorts and white tennis shoes. I loved him so much, this grownup little boy. He was so jolly. It was like Santa was visiting, except on Hallowe’en. Hallowe’en Santa.”
Kimberly Hatch Harrison
Ray Bradbury
Ray Bradbury IS a science fiction author, but he’s also a fantasy author, and a historian. All of these genres come together in his book The Halloween Tree.
Recommendation
Fahrenheit 451
Explore more classics from Ray Bradbury with Fahrenheit 451. In a world where thinking is discouraged, and conformity is the norm, we're introduced to a society that has traded in curiosity and critical thought for the shallow comfort of mindless entertainment.
Socratica Reads
All podcasts by Kimberly Hatch Harrison
