'Twas Halloween Night

Geoffrey Owens, actor on stage and screen, was inspired to write '''Twas Halloween Night" when he noticed that despite how popular the holiday had become, there was no equivalent classic children's literature celebrating it. Christmas is well represented by Clement C. Moore's poem "A Visit from St. Nicholas" (more popularly known as "The Night Before Christmas") and Charles Dickens's masterpiece A Christmas Carol. Young Jorlyn's trick-or-treating adventure in her Brooklyn, New York, neighborhood is described in rhyming verse. The poetic style of "'Twas Halloween Night" imitates that of "A Visit from Saint Nicholas"-its rhythm as well as its rhyming couplets. Like Dickens' great holiday story, "'Twas Halloween Night" suggests ways that little Jorlyn and each of us might do our part to make our world a better place through empathy and kindness. With its child-like illustrations and a story well-told, this book is destined to charm young and old alike.