Lionsgate released a live action movie version of The Best Christmas Pageant Ever , directed by Dallas Jenkins of The Chosen and featuring actors Judy Greer, Lauren Graham, Elizabeth Tabish, and Pete Holmes, now at a theater near you! The Herdmans are back so get ready for the Halloween of a lifetime that will have readers of all ages laughing! The worst kids in the history of the world return to terrorize Halloween this time, and their mischief has readers in fits of laughter. Kids will be raking in this funny book—now in paperback—faster than candy this season. Perfect for Halloween reading - A charming cozy seasonal pick “Fast paced and funny.” - School Library Journal “The Herdmans are back!” - The Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books “A breezy, entertaining story. The Herdmans still have some tricks―and even some treats―up their sleeves.” - The Horn Book The Herdmans plus Halloween have always spelled disaster Every Halloween, the six Herdman kids steal candy, spray-paint other kids, and take everything that isn't nailed down. And this year promises to be the same, until the Mayor decides to up and cancel Halloween. True, that means there'd be no Herdman trouble to contend with, but that also means no candy, no costumes, and no trick-or-treating! Is it possible that the Herdmans themselves could make what looks like a horrible Halloween into the best one ever? Barbara Robinson has written several popular books for children, including My Brother Louis Measures Worms , The Best School Year Ever , The Best Halloween Ever , and the enormously popular bestselling novel The Best Christmas Pageant Ever , first published in 1972, which was made into a classic TV movie and on which this book was based. The play The Best Christmas Pageant Ever is produced annually in theaters, schools, and churches all over the world. Ms. Robinson has two daughters and three grandchildren. The Best Halloween Ever By Barbara Robinson HarperTrophy Copyright © 2006 Barbara Robinson All right reserved. ISBN: 9780060766016 Chapter One It was the principal's idea, but it was the Herdmans' fault, according to my mother. "Don't blame Mr. Crabtree," she said. "It wasn't Mr. Crabtree who piled eight kids into the revolving door at the bank. It wasn't Mr. Crabtree who put the guppies on the pizza. It was one of the Herdmans, or some of the Herdmans, or all of the Herdmans . . . so if there's no Halloween this year, it's their fault!" Of course the Herdmans couldn't cancel Halloween everywhere. That's what I told my little brother, Charlie. Charlie kept saying, "I can't believe this!"?as if it was unusual for the Herdmans to mess things up for everybody else. It wasn't unusual. There were six Herdmans -- Ralph, Imogene, Leroy, Claude, Ollie, and Gladys -- plus their crazy cat, which was missing one eye and half its tail and most of its fur and any good nature it ever had. It bit the mailman and it bit the Avon lady, and after that it had to be kept on a chain, which is what most people wanted to do with the Herdmans. I used to wonder why their mother didn't do that with them, but, after all, there weresix of them and only one of her. She didn't hang around the house much anyway, and you couldn't really blame her -- even my mother said you couldn't really blame her. They lived over a garage at the bottom of Sproul Hill and their yard was full of what-ever used to be in the garage -- old tires and rusty tools and broken-down bicycles and the trunk of a car (no car, just the trunk) -- and I guess the neighbors would have complained about the mess except that all the neighbors had moved somewhere else. "Lucky for them!" Charlie grumbled. "They don't have to go to school with Leroy like I do."Like we all do, actually. The Herdmans were spread out through Woodrow Wilson School, one to each grade, and I guess if there had been any more of them they would have wiped out the school and everybody in it. As it was they'd wiped out Flag Day when they stole the flag, and Arbor Day when they stole the tree. They had ruined fire drills and school assemblies and PTA bake sales, and they let all the kindergarten mice out of their cage and then filled up the cage with guinea pigs. The whole kindergarten got hysterical about this. Some kids thought the guinea pigs ate their mice. Some kids thought the guinea pigs were their mice, grown gigantic overnight. They were all scared and sobbing and hiccuping, and the janitor had to come and remove the guinea pigs. All the mice got away, so I guess if you were a mouse you would be crazy about the Herdmans. I don't know whether mice get together and one of them says, "How was your day?" -- but if that happens, these mice would say, "Terrific!" "So was that it, Beth?" Charlie asked me. "The mice and the guinea pigs? Was that, like, the last straw, and then everybody said, ?All right, that's it, the last straw . . . no Halloween'? Was that it?" "I don't think so," I said. "