Frances Foster

The 50th season of The Negro Ensemble Company, a year-long retrospective of some of the troupe's signature works, continues May 24 to June 10 at Theatre 80 St. Marks with 'Daughters of the Mock' by Judi Ann Mason.

Rejoice, Halloween people! There's a 2015 edition of Ray Bradbury's 1972 classic The Halloween Tree (Knopf), one of the very best Halloween books ever written for eight-year-olds or adults, newly illustrated by the much-admired Gris Grimly. Gather the kids around on an October night and read (out loud, if possible) the deliciously lyrical, globe-circling, time-traveling tale of Mr. Moundshroud and eight trick-or-treating boys in search of their missing, maybestolen friend Pipkin... 'And all the deep dark wild long history of Halloween waiting to swallow us whole!'