The Halloween Kid by Rhode Montijo

Halloween is usually time for good old-fashioned dressin' up and gettin' some sweets.

But sometimes there are more tricks than treats.

Like the time those Toilet Paper Mummies rolled into town!

For moments when the bad guys roll into Treat City, who you gonna call? Well, there's always been The Halloween Kid, that masked marvel, the nemesis of such rowdies as the T.P. Mummies and the Pumpkin-Suckin' Vampires. Masked and topped with his big ten-gallon hat and astride his sturdy stick horse, he's always been there to vanquish any and all "Halloween-hatin' varmints" with his familiar

YE-HA-LLOWEEN!

As Halloween rolls around again, it looks as if the Halloween hoodlums have been all defeated and the world has been made safe for li'l treat wranglers. They're out in force--fairy princesses, ghosts, monsters, and diminutive Draculas all.

And then the Goodie Goblins Gang rides into town, runnin' wild and swiping treat bags right and left:

Some folks locked their doors and kept their li'l young-uns inside.

And some folks started handin' out stuff that wasn't even candy.

It was horrible.

Folks started talkin' 'bout cancelin' Halloween for good.

It's a job for The Halloween Kid all right. But this time it looks like the legendary Kid has met his match. The Goodie Goblins lasso the Kid and hide him in a cave in the hills, and it looks like for once and all these hauntin' hoodlums have hog-tied Halloween.

It's all up to The Kid's sturdy stick steed, who manages to escape and gallop away for reinforcements. Can he round up the trick-or-treat posse and save The Kid and Halloween, too?

Rhode Montijo's newest, The Halloween Kid (Simon & Schuster, 2010), all tricked out and treated to a 1950s cartoon style in a palette of dusty golds and rustic oranges, is a retro-treat for all those li'l buckaroos who'll cheer at seein' this gang of candy crooks hustled off to the hoosegow just in time for ye-Ha-lloween.