Dunc's Halloween

Culpepper Adventures #5

by Gary Paulsen

Dunc and his best friend, Amos, are planning the best route to get the most candy on Halloween. But their plans change when Amos is slightly bitten by a werewolf. he begins scratching himself and chasing UPS He's become a werepuppy!

Genres: Middle Grade

84 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1992

About the author

Gary James Paulsen was an American writer of children's and young adult fiction, best known for coming-of-age stories about the wilderness. He was the author of more than 200 books and wrote more than 200 magazine articles and short stories, and several plays, all primarily for teenagers. He won the Margaret Edwards Award from the American Library Association in 1997 for his lifetime contribution in writing for teens.

Reviews

[Josiah · Rating 1 out of 5]

Halloween is coming to Dunc Culpepper and Amos Binder's hometown, and Amos has a plan to maximize their trick-or-treating efficiency. Hitting all the lucrative candy-giving houses requires the two boys to reach a top running speed of sixty miles per hour between houses, never spending more than two seconds at any door, but he believes it's doable even if Dunc is skeptical. Dunc and Amos are rehearsing their route the night before Halloween when a hairy creature with yellow eyes chases them up a tree, lightly nipping Amos before he makes it to safety. The scary incident keeps the boy up the tree all night, but not until the next afternoon does Dunc suspect it was a werewolf. Having been bitten by the creature, Amos fails to notice the less than subtle ways he is beginning to act like a wolf. Is he slowly morphing into a...werepuppy?

Dunc's research leads him to conclude werewolves are a myth, but that people can be tricked into believing they're one. Such a victim may act and even start looking like a wolf until a placebo antidote is administered. Whatever poor soul treed them last night might be cured if Dunc runs a silver-colored butter knife across his forehead. This is a bigger priority even than scoring a massive trick-or-treat haul, so Dunc and Amos team up to prepare for the mission. Dunc soon notices his friend's lupine behavior: chasing cats and UPS trucks, Amos's sense of smell intensifying to outlandish proportions. Was he bitten by the werewolf last night, Dunc wonders? The only sure fix is to get Amos and the werewolf into the same place and scratch them both with the butter knife...and you can bet that's going to be one wild Halloween night encounter.

I'm not as big a fan of Gary Paulsen's comedy stories as his survival novels and memoirs. The Culpepper Adventures (of which there are thirty) make less sense than other Paulsen comedy books such as The Schernoff Discoveries and Molly McGinty Has a Really Good Day. The series isn't awful and the books are short, but I'm not sure they're my style. Gary Paulsen is one of the great authors of his generation, though, and I recommend him without hesitation. When you come upon one of his transcendent works, it's well worth the search.

[C Dussault · Rating 5 out of 5]

It was a great book

[Dave · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fondly remember this one; not sure it has the greatest moral message.

[Earline · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the first book I've read in the Culpepper Adventure series, and I have to say, I was impressed. I'm a sucker for a good teenage werewolf story, but throw in a chase scene in a library, and I'm pretty much obligated to give it 5 stars! Awesome :)

[Riley Borklund · Rating 4 out of 5]

Okay, wouldn't read it again. but overall, a good book.

[Corrin Noggle · Rating 3 out of 5]

A book set on or around Halloween