38 pages • 1 hour read
Barbara RobinsonThe Best Halloween Ever
Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 1981A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 6-8Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 6 Summary
After the incident with Alice, Louella is worried that the Herdmans will come to school on Halloween after all, just to get back at all the adults in charge, and thus jeopardize her ability to make $8. Meanwhile, the other kids are putting the finishing touches on their costumes. Charlie and his friend Cecil are going as the two halves of a lion, with Charlie at the front. Boomer’s plans to be King Kong are on hold because someone stole his grandmother’s fur coat from the cleaners. Joanne McCoy claims she’s going to dress up as Imogene Herdman.
On the morning of Halloween, Mrs. Hazelwood, their teacher, wants to confirm if the Herdmans are indeed staying away from school that night. She asks Imogene if they’d be coming, but Imogene replies that their mother will not allow them. Beth knows Imogene is lying. When Alice whispers that it makes no sense for Mrs. Herdman to keep her kids at home, because no place could be safer than school, Imogene pokes her in the stomach and whispers menacingly that any other place, in fact, would be safer than the school tonight. Imogene’s mysterious threat creates a buzz.
Chapter 7 Summary
Charlie is already home by the time Beth gets in. The fourth-grade teacher, Miss Seaworthy, let them out early because their classroom has to be decorated as a swamp for the evening. Charlie has heard about Imogene’s warning and is scared Halloween might get ruined, but Beth reassures him. Meanwhile, their mother has left a scribbled note on the fridge door saying she has gone to school early, but the part where she explains why is missing. Charlie is upset that their mother won’t be around to see him dressed as a lion. Beth suspects what he is really upset about is missing regular Halloween.
Louella arrives, dressed as a Pilgrim again, with baby Howard dressed as a chia pet. She complains that even with all the precautions, everyone is still worrying about what the Herdmans will do. Cecil brings the EZ mop head, but it is soaking wet. Beth helps Charlie and Cecil get into a slipcover, cutting eye holes for Cecil, and the group leaves. Louella is spooked on the way to school, suspecting any moving shadow is a Herdman, ready to pop up. They finally see the blazing lights of the school.
Chapter 8 Summary
Louella is so unused to having Halloween without the Herdmans that she keeps seeing them everywhere. Joanne McCoy decided at the last minute to come as Wonder Woman, reasoning that if the Herdmans did do something, she might be mistaken for Imogene. However, the scene at school appears to be entirely under the control of the adults, as if it were “Back-to-School” night, just with costumes instead. Charlie notices that their dad’s “wash-the-car pants” are being worn by a decorative scarecrow. Beth sees a furry King Kong and assumes that Boomer found her grandmother’s coat. Alice is the only person who thought to come as a Christmas Tree. Nothing seems very scary, except for Beth’s own mother, who as it turns out, is dressed as a witch because another mom had broken her ankle.
Beth and the other children agree that in the bid to make Halloween Herdman-free and not at all scary, the adults have managed to invent “the worst Halloween ever” (77). However, as they commiserate about the candy hauls of Halloweens past, Beth begins to notice strange details. The scarecrow in her dad’s pants, which she assumed was a dummy, is actually a real person. Boomer appears, dressed as a “Happy Hobo” character from a local business logo, and tells Beth he never showed up as King Kong.
Chapters 6-8 Analysis
As Halloween night approaches, the pace of the narrative picks up, with new developments and twists coming to the fore. Boomer’s grandmother’s fur coat went missing at the cleaners, a strange thing to happen. Beth’s mother will be dressing as a witch, which was very much not in Beth’s plan for the night. As the town gets closer to achieving the Herdman-free Halloween they’d wanted, the children, especially Charlie, begin to miss the old, more inclusive Halloween. When Charlie is upset that his mother will not be around to see him and Cecil as a lion, Beth understands the real reason for his sadness is that he is “generally missing a normal Halloween” (65). Louella, Beth’s friend, observes that the Herdmans missing is as bad as having them around because at least if they’re around one has a better idea of what they’re planning. The children’s complicated feelings around the Herdmans show that they are uncomfortable with the idea of a sanitized Halloween. This highlights the theme of The Importance of Inclusivity in Communities.
The reason that Charlie is more comfortable than the grown-ups with the Herdmans is because he is better at Finding Joy in the Unexpected. In the novel, the Herdmans symbolize the spirit of Halloween: spooky, thrilling, and fun. To really enjoy Halloween, one has to be prepared to be scared a little, and to spend time with the Herdmans is a similar experience. Set in their ways, the conformist grown-ups cannot recognize this appeal. When Beth’s mother notes that the school has planned a safe Halloween for the sake of the children, Beth notes that this is not true. The sanitized Halloween is more for the mayor, the fire chief, and the police chief, “everybody who wants the Herdmans off the streets on Halloween” (63). Within this context, the children crave creativity and disorder to mix things up in terms of their costumes. Charlie and his friend Cecil are particularly ambitious in their creation of a two-person lion costume. When it is time to walk to school, the other children help guide Cecil so that he doesn’t keep bumping into Charlie. They move in an erratic procession, with everyone Louella’s baby brother bumping along in his stroller. The walk captures the atmosphere of a more traditional Halloween, with the dark night, the deserted streets, and Louella glimpsing a Herdman in every shadow. The entire scene highlights the theme of The Enduring Appeal of Halloween and the importance of community and solidarity.
