The third installment in Barbara Robinson’s popular series about the Herdman family, The Best Halloween Ever (2004) is a feel-good children’s chapter book. Narrated by fifth-grader Beth Bradley, the novel follows the adventures of the students at Woodrow Wilson Elementary School after the mayor of their town bans trick-or-treating on Halloween. When the school principal makes matters worse by deciding to host a safe and boring Halloween party at school, it is left up to the Herdmans, six unruly and wild siblings notorious for their pranks, to either further ruin Halloween or to save it entirely. Filled with humor, whimsy, and suspense, the novel reflects The Enduring Appeal of Halloween, while exploring themes such as The Importance of Inclusivity in Communities and Finding Joy in the Unexpected.

Barbara Robinson (1927-2013) wrote two other books featuring the Herdmans: The Best Christmas Pageant Ever (1972) and The Best School Year Ever (1994). The Best Christmas Pageant Ever is now regarded as a classic of children’s literature. The books are marked by Robinson’s use of young first-person narrators and a humorous look at misbehaving children. The unruliness of the Herdmans is played for laughs; they are depicted as ultimately harmless, despite their habit of setting fires and writing bad words on the back of turtles. Robinson was born in Ohio and lived in Philadelphia for most of her adult life. Apart from the Herdman books, she also wrote short fiction and poetry.

This guide uses the 2011 Harper Collins e-book edition.

Plot Summary

Fifth-grader Beth Bradley lives in a small town in Ohio with her parents and her younger brother Charlie. Like most of the other children in their community, Beth and Charlie go to Woodrow Wilson School, also attended by the six Herdman siblings. The Herdmans are so naughty that their own mother prefers to work multiple shifts rather than spend time with them. Already this year, the Herdmans have jammed eight kids into the revolving door at the bank and replaced sardines in pizza orders with live guppies. In previous years, the Herdmans have either robbed or scammed the town’s children of all the candy they collected during trick-or-treating on Halloween.

Afraid of the mayhem the Herdmans might unleash as Halloween approaches, the town’s mayor decides there will be no trick-or-treating this year. As expected, the children are disappointed. Mr. Crabtree, their Halloween-hating principal, steps in and announces that a chaperoned Halloween event will take place at school this year. There will be no trick-or-treating and, worse, no candy. Halloween seems guaranteed to be boring until Imogene Herdman tells Beth her mother won’t allow the Herdmans to attend the school Halloween event because of safety concerns. When Imogene knowingly repeats herself, Beth knows the Herdmans are up to something. Meanwhile, clothes start mysteriously disappearing from the dry cleaners. To prevent trick-or-treating, all the stores in town stop stocking candy.

On Halloween night, the Bradleys and their friends expect the Herdmans to pop up any time, but none of the six siblings are to be seen. In school, parents and teachers, including Beth’s mother, have dressed up as witches and ghouls and are running events like the Mystery Maze and the Swamp. When several children cannot be found, Mr. Crabtree announces their names over the PA system, but before Beth and the others can figure out what’s happening, the power goes off and the school is plunged into darkness. Charlie is among the missing students, his lion costume discarded.

Mysterious sounds and lights surround Beth and her friends as they make their way into the hall. Beth’s mother screams because someone has filled her witch’s cauldron with spaghetti, which she mistakes for worms. The children head to the teachers’ lounge, curious to see what is inside. The lights come back on and they see a hole in the lounge floor with the kindergarten slide in it. At the bottom of the slide is a mountain of candy and all the missing children, including Charlie, cramming their pockets with sweets. Beth and her friends slide down as well, happy that Halloween has been saved.

Mr. Crabtree is unable to solve the mystery of what happened on Halloween night and announces the school will never organize such an event ever again. Beth knows what happened, though. The Herdmans took the clothes from the dry cleaners so they could sneak into the school as King Kong, the Scarecrow, and others. The clothes later appear in the lost-and-found. They gave back all the candy they’d stolen from the kids on previous Halloweens. The power outage was a coincidence; when Alice plugged in the lights on her Christmas tree costume, she blew a fuse. Beth’s classmate Boomer announces that this Halloween was one of the best ever, courtesy of the Herdmans.