Front cover of an edition of The Night Before Halloween.
The Night Before Halloween (ISBN 0448419653) is a children's fantasy picture book of thirty-two pages. It was first published in the United States in 1999. The verse story is a parody of the famous 19th century poem "A Visit from St. Nicholas" (also known as "The Night Before Christmas"). The Night Before Halloween was written by Natasha Wing and illustrated by Cynthia Fisher.
The book describes how a house full of ghosts and monsters prepare for Halloween, how some children celebrate the holiday and what happens when the children go to the house of the supernatural beings.
Plot[]
The action begins on the night before Halloween in a house which is home to Count Dracula, the Bride of Frankenstein, mummies, ghouls, witches, goblins and spiders. All of the inhabitants of the house work until dawn to decorate their house for the upcoming holiday. They want it to look attractive for when trick-or-treaters come the following evening.
Elsewhere in the same town, children are sleeping and dreaming about candy corn.
The children wake up the following morning to a day full of activities. They bob for apples, go on hayrides, go to costume parties and have parades. After dinner, the children's parents make last minute adjustments to their costumes before they go out trick-or-treating.
At the moment when most of the children think that they have finished trick-or-treating, a girl points out that there is a house on top of the hill that they have not been to yet. It is the home of the ghosts and monsters. The children have a slightly strange feeling when they come to the house. Before they knock at the door, they hear heavy footsteps approaching and the lock turning. The door is opened by a witch with a green face. The children flee in terror when they realize that the woman is a real witch and not just somebody in a costume.
The little monsters wanted to play with the children and are upset that they ran away. The green-faced witch consoles the little monsters by telling them that they can have their own Halloween party without the children. The ghostly and monstrous inhabitants of the house go outside and dance by the light of the moon.
See also[]
- De Night in de Front from Chreesmas
- Big Pumpkin
- Los Gatos Black on Halloween
- Georgie
- Gus Was a Friendly Ghost
- The Little Old Lady Who Was Not Afraid of Anything
- Room on the Broom
- Scary, Scary Halloween
- Winnie and Wilbur picture book series
External links[]
- The Night Before Halloween on Natasha Wing's official website.
- There is an article about The Night Before Halloween on the Halloween Wiki.