How do you interpret the fantastical journey in the book? Is it a real experience, a dream, or a figment of the boys’ imagination? Explain your interpretation in a paragraph.

Of the two goals of the story—saving Pipkin and learning about the true meaning of Halloween—which does the book suggest is more important? How might the two goals be related?

In your analysis, what purpose do Bradbury’s allusions to Dickens’s A Christmas Carol serve in the narrative?