Horn Book (Tue Apr 01 00:00:00 CST 2003)

With the phrase "Halloween is ..." running across the top of most pages, the book surveys, in simple text and cartoon illustrations, the history of the holiday, its symbols (black cats, ghosts) and the various ways it's celebrated, including trick-or-treating. Although the illustrations are newly drawn, many replicate the artwork found in Gibbons's 1984 book Halloween; some of the text is identical to the previous volume as well.

Kirkus Reviews

This remake of Halloween (1984) brightens the original's gloomy tone with larger, redrawn illustrations featuring lots of happy-looking children and the occasional, not-particularly-scary, witch or ghost, paired to such reassuring lines as "today [skeletons] are used to scare people and have fun," and "weird and scary stories are enjoyed by all." Rewriting the text and adding some detail, Gibbons fills in the holiday's past, but focuses most closely on how it is celebrated today, adding warnings (not in the previous edition) that pumpkin-carving and trick-or-treating should only be done with parental assistance. Though this holiday standard has never gone out of print, there is enough new and recast material here to make it a treat, rather than a trick, even for libraries that just bought fresh copies of the old edition. (Picture book/nonfiction. 6-8)

Publishers Weekly (Fri Oct 06 00:00:00 CDT 2023)

Gail Gibbons explains holiday roots and traditions in Halloween Is..., a companion to Christmas Is.... Whimsically decorated borders of wee ghosts and pumpkins frame the playful illustrations.