38 pages 1 hour read

Barbara Robinson

The Best Halloween Ever

Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 1981

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Chapters 12-13Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapter 12 Summary

Nearly every kind of candy imaginable is crammed into the boiler room. All the missing kids are there as well, stuffing their pockets with the candy. Louella wishes she had Howard’s stroller so she could fill it up. No one knows where it came from, but they know it isn’t from their parents, the principal, or the mayor. When Mr. Crabtree shows up and starts yelling at them, one of the first graders says it was the “Halloween tooth fairy.” He doesn’t know who to blame without any Herdmans around; after all, many of the younger kids were already down in the boiler room before Alice caused the power outage.

Mr. Crabtree cancels the rest of the Halloween party. The supermarket refuses to take the candy since it is stale, so all the candy goes to the kids. Beth observes that, when it comes to Halloween candy, it doesn’t matter whether it is good—just that there is a lot of it. Mr. Crabtree vows never to host Halloween at school again, which means next Halloween will be back to normal. Beth and Charlie decide that is what is best, even though their mother can’t understand why they would want to go trick-or-treating with the threat of the Herdmans’ pranks looming over their head.

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By Barbara Robinson

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