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.
Character Analysis
Beth Bradley
The protagonist and first-person narrator of the novel, fifth-grader Beth lives in a small town in Ohio with her parents and younger brother Charlie. Both Beth and Charlie attend the Woodrow Wilson School. Beth is a keen observer of her classmates and the adults around her; she is neither an Alice Wendleken-style teacher’s pet nor a troublemaker. Although, like all her peers, she has been told that the Herdmans are trouble—and has even experienced their pranks at close range—Beth takes a dim view of Alice’s over-achieving, remarking to herself at one point that Alice probably has “‘I volunteer’ tattooed on her chest” (24). Beth is also uncomfortable with Alice’s open cruelty toward Imogene and the other Herdman siblings, particularly when Imogene overhears Alice talking about how nice it will be to have a “Herdman-free” Halloween. By being unobtrusive, Beth can focus her keen powers of observation and analysis to unpack her world. For instance, at the school Halloween, she notes that the person wearing the scarecrow pants is not her father, and immediately senses that mischief is afoot.
While Beth is less prone to get in trouble than her brother Charlie, she too has a nose for adventure. She insists on dressing up as a belly dancer on Halloween, even though her mother doesn’t love the idea. Throughout the novel, Beth reflects that a sanitized and controlled Halloween is too safe and wishes for a more unpredictable celebration. When Beth’s mother says a candy-less school Halloween is great because it will keep the children from indulging themselves too much, Beth notes that indulgence is exactly what children want from Halloween. Observations such as these make Beth’s viewpoint very useful in illustrating the difference between children and grown-ups. Beth’s character can be said to be dynamic since her perspective on the Herdmans evolves during the novel. At the beginning, Beth is warier of the Herdmans, but by the time the novel ends, she decides that they are a source of both wonder and terror. It is best to sit back with the Herdmans and not question them too much.
Charlie Bradley
Charlie, one of the key characters of The Best Halloween Ever is the younger brother of Beth and a fourth-grade student at Woodrow Wilson School. The outspoken and impulsive Charlie is a foil to his quieter older sister. While Beth tends to stay out of trouble, Charlie often falls in with the Herdmans as something between a victim and an accomplice. Not only was Charlie one of the eight children who willingly follow the Herdmans into the revolving door at the bank, but he once also agreed to let himself be wallpapered by a Herdman, with the idea that Charlie would jump out of the wall during parent-teacher conferences. These hilarious—albeit potentially dangerous—situations may cause his parents consternation, but for Charlie they represent the lure of adventure and a break from his otherwise well-regulated middle-class childhood.
Imogene Herdman and Her Siblings
The Herdman siblings include Ralph, Imogene, Leroy, Claude, Ollie, and Gladys, and also, according to Beth, “their crazy cat, which was missing one eye […] and any good nature it ever had” (1). Unlike The Best Christmas Pageant Ever, where each Herdman sibling has a starring role in said pageant, only Imogene figures prominently in The Best Halloween Ever. Her siblings play minor roles by comparison, participating in brief conversations and appearing in recollections of previous misdemeanors. The Herdmans are depicted as more anarchic than merely naughty, and their pranks tend to involve mayhem rather than overt cruelty. Still, everyone in the town—including the mayor and Rotary Club—is afraid of what they will do next. Beth recounts some of their recent escapades, which include taking candy from children on past Halloweens and replacing sardines on pizzas with live fish. As these antics show, on a symbolic level, the Herdmans represent unruly, wild energy. Apart from Imogene, none of them make an appearance, yet talk about them pervades the lives of the rest of the town. In this sense, the Herdmans function like ghosts, felt but not seen, which strengthens their connection to Halloween.
Part of the Herdmans’ reputation for unruliness comes from their class position. Unlike the other students at Woodrow Wilson School, the Herdmans are being raised by a single mother and live in a ramshackle, largely chaotic house. People like Alice Wendleken and her mother look down on them because they occasionally receive welfare benefits or food donations. Because they have little adult supervision, the Herdmans themselves seem older than their peers. When the PTA decides to hold a chaperoned, candy-less Halloween at school, Imogene announces that she will not be hanging around at a school event “with a lot of fake witches […] and little kid games” (47), implying that she is too mature to participate.
At the same time, they have surprising depth and even show forgiveness toward the other children, who tend to follow the lead of the adults in their lives by judging them. As the final chapter of the novel shows, Imogene has a strongly developed sense of fairness. As much as she despises Alice Wendleken, she claps loudly at the end of her presentation on electrocution and makes those around her do the same, all to show her gratitude to Alice for having inadvertently caused the school-wide power outage. Indeed, though Imogene overhears Alice’s excited anticipation of a Herdman-free Halloween, the siblings’ revenge is actually a gift to the rest of the children. This gesture suggests that the Herdmans are complex, well-rounded characters, even as much about their motivation and planning remains obscure.
Alice Wendleken
As in the other Best…Ever novels, the overachieving rule-follower Alice Wendleken acts as a foil to the Herdmans. She is relentless in the pursuit of extra credit; in The Best Halloween Ever, she turns in so many extra credit assignments that the teachers stop giving them out. Alice’s mother has a reputation for being overbearing and controlling, and any minor threat to Alice constitutes a catastrophe. Since Alice is the frequent target of the Herdmans’ pranks, this leads to many hilarious situations. For instance, Beth recalls an earlier Halloween when Alice dressed up as a hot dog, complete with bits of food in her pockets for extra authenticity. The Herdmans had let all the animals out of the shelter, and Alice’s costume was attacked by hungry dogs. Although Alice escaped unharmed, Mrs. Wendleken took one look at the fluff and assumed the worst. She still thinks the Herdmans should have been “locked up” for the offense.
Thanks to Mrs. Wendleken, Alice knows everything about what is going on in school. Alice can also be insensitive at times, especially about the Herdmans. This trait is also inherited from her mother, who is annoyed that the Herdmans end up getting the leftover doughnuts that were donated to the “Welfare Department.” It is Alice who gloats that Halloween will be Herdman-free within Imogene’s hearing. Yet, Alice unwittingly helps the Herdmans achieve their plans for Halloween. After the lights on her Christmas tree costume cause a power outage, the Herdmans are free to carry out their plans. Despite her best efforts to separate themselves from the Herdmans, Alice ends up being their collaborator.
