# The Night the Scarecrow Walked

Three mornings in a row, the old scarecrow at Hollis Hill Pumpkin Farm has moved to a new spot. Josie and Ben turn detective and follow the clues through a dusky corn maze and a foggy field to find out who is walking Mister Hollis.

Ages 6–9. 6 chapters, about 37 minutes.

## What happens

A week before Halloween, Josie and Ben Archer wake to find the old scarecrow gone from his post at their family's pumpkin farm. Each morning he turns up somewhere new: by the barn, at the corn maze, holding a lantern. The neighbors whisper that he walks on Halloween, but Josie keeps a detective's notebook and trusts her clues.

The mystery is solved with real-world reasons that listeners can work out alongside the children, and it ends at the farm's Halloween night festival. It has foggy fields, hooting owls and a few good shivers, with no one in danger and a warm, funny reveal.

## From Chapter 1

> Josie Archer was the first one up on Monday morning, and the first one to see it.
>
> She pressed her nose to her bedroom window. The sun was just pushing over Hollis Hill, and the pumpkin field glowed orange in the early light. Hundreds of pumpkins. Fat ones, tall ones, lumpy ones. And one empty wooden post right in the middle.
>
> The post where Mister Hollis was supposed to be.
>
> Mister Hollis was the farm's scarecrow. He was older than Dad and older than Grandpa too. He wore a droopy brown hat, a patched blue coat, and a burlap face with a crooked stitched smile. Every day of Josie's whole life, he had stood on that post with his arms stretched wide, guarding the pumpkins.

## Chapters

1. The Scarecrow by the Barn
2. The Corn Maze at Dusk
3. The Lantern and the Hayride
4. Fog in the Field
5. Who Was Walking Mister Hollis
6. Halloween Night