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Books & Graphic Novels

True Gris: Grimly IIlustrated Bradbury Classic

bradbury, gris grimly, knopf publishing, the halloween tree
Gris Grimly’s Dust Jacket for Knopf’s new “The Halloween Tree” edition.
I’d like to kick off October with a look at a book I ordered as a birthday gift for myself last month.

Ray Bradbury’s The Halloween Tree remains my favorite autumn tome since I first purchased the Ballantine paperback edition back in 1972 and read it in one sitting. It is a wonderful rumination on the origins of the witching season wrapped in a quintessential Bradbury “boy’s tale” (or what we now call young adult fiction). Originally conceived as a screen treatment for an un-produced Chuck Jones cartoon, each of its characters learns the history and significance of their respective costume as they travel through the Samhain night on a quest to save a friend.