The book is available to borrow for free online through Internet Archive.Access-restricted-item true Addeddate 04:03:10 Boxid IA40131211 Camera Sony Alpha-A6300 (Control) Collection_set printdisabled External-identifier

I think that the book’s author was from the generation that was raised on those westerns and had nostalgic associations with them. I didn’t see those shows until I was older, and by then, they looked pretty cheesy. I grew up in the American Southwest, but I didn’t grow up on old western shows where peace pipes were a common feature. I think that idea shows the age of the book’s creator. Kids sometimes dressed as American Indians for Halloween when I was young, although the practice is discouraged now, but with all of the anti-smoking campaigns aimed at children when I was young, most of our parents wouldn’t have even considered giving us a peace pipe as part of a costume, even ignoring the social and cultural implications of that.

However, the part about this costume that particularly jumped out at me was the ceremonial pipe. If you read some of the reviews of Native American costumes on Amazon, like I did, it seems that more of them were purchased for school plays and projects or Thanksgiving plays than for Halloween. It’s not enough of a stigma to get people to stop wearing them and major costume retailers from selling them, but enough that some people raise eyebrows at them because of some of the connotations attached to them. It’s partly because there’s something of a stigma against Native American costumes now. When I first read this book back in the 1980s (I was four years old when the book was new, although I can’t remember exactly how old I was when I first read it), I didn’t think too much about the Indian (Native American) costume with a pipe, although I wouldn’t think of suggesting that as a costume for anyone now. When Emily considers dressing Clifford as a knight, they don’t consider where she’s going to get a suit of armor that size, but the books in this series don’t worry much about the logistics of caring for a dog the size of Clifford. Kids like making choices, and trying to think of costumes that would work on a gigantic dog presents a creative challenge. I like the idea of letting kids consider which Halloween costumes they like the best from the ones that Emily Elizabeth considers.

Clifford's Halloween by Norman Bridwell