The Best Halloween Ever

The protagonist and first-person narrator of the novel, fifth-grader Beth lives in a small town in Ohio with her parents and younger brother Charlie. Both Beth and Charlie attend the Woodrow Wilson School. Beth is a keen observer of her classmates and the adults around her; she is neither an Alice Wendleken-style teacher’s pet nor a troublemaker. Although, like all her peers, she has been told that the Herdmans are trouble—and has even experienced their pranks at close range—Beth takes a dim view of Alice’s over-achieving, remarking to herself at one point that Alice probably has “‘I volunteer’ tattooed on her chest” (24). Beth is also uncomfortable with Alice’s open cruelty toward Imogene and the other Herdman siblings, particularly when Imogene overhears Alice talking about how nice it will be to have a “Herdman-free” Halloween. By being unobtrusive, Beth can focus her keen powers of observation and analysis to unpack her world. For instance, at the school Halloween, she notes that the person wearing the scarecrow pants is not her father, and immediately senses that mischief is afoot.

While Beth is less prone to get in trouble than her brother Charlie, she too has a nose for adventure.