The Halloween Tree

It is Halloween night in a small town in the Midwest (the state is identified later in the book as Illinois). Tom Skelton, age 13, can tell that it is a special night as he absorbs the sights and sounds around him. Dressed in a skeleton costume, Tom joins his costumed friends on the sidewalk for a night of trick-or-treating. However, they soon realize that one of their friends is missing: Joe Pipkin. Fearing that Pipkin is sick and that Halloween will not be any fun without him, they approach his house.

The boys love Pipkin, “the greatest boy who ever lived” (9). Pipkin is fun-loving, considerate, unselfish, and protective. Standing outside Pipkin’s door, the boys hope he appears so that Halloween can “REALLY begin.”

Pipkin steps out of the house and greets his friends, looking sick and pale and holding his side. When Tom asks Pipkin if he is sick, Pipkin bursts into tears and says that he can’t tell his parents what is wrong. He instructs the boys to go on ahead of him to the “Haunted House” by the ravine. He will meet them there later.

The boys go trick-or-treating, but the experience feels fake without the jovial Pipkin.