The Pumpkin Smasher by Anita Benarde (1972, Paperback) Halloween

The Pumpkin Smasher by Anita Benarde (1972, Paperback) Halloween Story See photos: this vintage preowned book shows creases in the covers and a name written on the inside, pages are all in good shape. This Weekly Reader Book is inspired by a true story This was the massacre Anita Benarde and her neighbors awoke to discover three days before Halloween in 1969, after a vandal went doorstep-to-doorstep in the night, shattering jack-o-lanterns. It wasnt exactly the crime of the century, but this effort to spoil the holiday actually inspired one of its most beloved tales: The Pumpkin Smasher. First published in 1972, Benardes book of smoky inks and sunset oranges was a hallmark of Weekly Reader lists for decades before falling out of print, telling the story of a town that unites to foil a gourd-demolishing witch. What many dont know is that the story really happened. Not the witch part. Although maybe? Benarde and her neighbors never nabbed the actual culprit.