Halloween

by Gail Gibbons

Explains the origin of Halloween, jack-o-lanterns, and trick-or-treating, and looks at the costumes, decorations, and games associated with the holiday

Genres: Halloween, Picture Books, Nonfiction, Childrens, Holiday

32 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1984

About the author

From gailgibbons.com: I was born in Oak Park, Illinois, in 1944. Even as a little child, I was always busy putting books together. Sometimes I would bind them with yarn to hold the pages together. I've always loved drawing and painting. I was also a very curious child. My parents tell me that I was always asking lots and lots of questions.

Later, I went on to the University of Illinois, where I studied graphic design. Then I moved to New York City, where I got a job doing artwork for television shows. Eventually I was asked to do the artwork for a children's show. While doing that show, some of the children asked me if I had ever thought of doing children's books. My mind immediately recalled how much I enjoyed doing that type of thing when I was a child. So I put an idea for a book together and right away a publisher bought it. That book was called Willy and His Wheel Wagon. Since then, over 170 books that I have written and illustrated have been published. The type of books I write are non-fiction books. This is because I love researching so much. I get to ask lots of questions, just like when I was a kid. I also get to travel and meet lots of interesting people. While doing research for my book Nature's Green Umbrella: Tropical Rain Forests, I traveled to two islands where there are tropical rain forests, Saba and Dominica. I also had a great time writing and illustrating the book. I get a lot of pleasure from doing the type of work I do.

Reviews

[Andrea · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some of the illustrations are terrible. The goblins were hideous. Hairless little people with huge white eyes, pointed ears, hair sticking straight up, and dotted lines around their ears, eyes and mouths, and tails.

The colors are really vibrant and bold. My favorite pages were the house and the pumpkin. The house was yellow with a brown door and trimming, with a witch, skeleton and pumpkins on the door, cornstalks on both sides of the stairs, and a big pumpkin on a step. A big stuffed pumpkin man sat in a chair, with a red shirt and blue jeans, hay coming out and a real pumpkin head.

After having just read her The Pumpkin Book yesterday, it made it stand out all the more. 2 pages are almost exactly the same. That book mentioned that people believed ghosts and witches were out and made bonfires to scare them away. The illustration showed 3 figured with their arms raised at a bonfire, just like in her other book. The next page showed a stone building with two entryways with figures so similar it was astounding. There was a guy with checkered pants holding a staff with a banner hiding his face with a cross on it. There's a person with a yellow cape and green cloak, except it's blue in The Pumpkin Book. There's also a guy with sandals and wings and a short person with a mask on. Both books have the exact same text about Oct 31 being called All Hallows Even, holy evening. It was the night the church called All Hallows or All Saints Day, then was shortened to Halloween, except The Pumpkin Book had one more sentence saying today Halloween is celebrated in diff ways, and in here the next page said today many diff things are done. I couldn't believe what I was reading. Come on! You can't just copy the exact same illustrations and copy and paste whole paragraphs from the other book and call it a new book.

I read a book recently on vintage Halloween and how people played tricks in the past, so I was pleasantly surprised to see the page with a man noticing his rocker had been put on his roof and boys were hiding behind a tree. She wrote that it used to be a time for playing tricks.

There was a party with yellow walls, cobwebs, an orange banner that said Happy Halloween in black letters, and pumpkins, stars, moons, and ghosts tied to the frame. There was a skeleton, black cat and bat on the wall.

She covered topics like Halloween parties, costumes, pinning the grin on the pumpkin and bobbing for apples, trick or treating, haunted houses, contests with awards. It ended with Halloween being about make-believe and saying BOO! It had a blue background with white stars, and a big grinning jack o' lantern with a ghost popping out of the top.

The illustrations ended up being the best part about the book. I just wanted to sit and stare at them a while because they were so colorful and there was so much to look at. I like how she covered Halloweens past as well as present and what you can do to celebrate Halloween. The text was really simple, with usually just one very short sentence on a page, or one sentence being extended over two pages. I wish the text had more meat to it.

[Heather · Rating 2 out of 5]

Long ago people used to think witches, ghosts, goblins and elves roamed Earth at night.

This explained the jack O lantern fable better than a previous book I had read. Jack was mean and stingy, and when he died, couldn't get into heaven. There was nowhere for him to go. He then carved a turnip, placing a glowing coal in it, and wandered at night. People called him Jack of the Lantern or Jack-o'-Lantern.

I loved on the page with people playing tricks on Halloween, it shaped a chair on the roof with the man exclaiming "oh my..." That was humorous.

Bobbing for apples is an old English game.

I liked the first page with the deep blue background and the outline of the witch flying to the moon and the cat and ghost.
This was pretty dated-looking and felt old. The illustrations weren't that good. Especially the weird images of the goblins. The writing was really simple too. It was just ok.

[Peacegal · Rating 3 out of 5]

This reminds me of something I would have checked out of my elementary school library in the 1980s. It's a simple presentation of Halloween traditions and their origins. The presentation is dated, but that's understandable.

[Jess · Rating 3 out of 5]

October 2017 - gives an overview of Halloween at a good level for preschoolers.

[Eliot Reads · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is all about Halloween, past and present.

[Jessica · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very informative. I love learning new things from topics I believe I know a lot about, especially when it’s a juvenile text. The illustrations are colorful and add to the text.

[Lynn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Nice easy read aloud for younger readers. Not too dense and very easy to understand. Students loved it.

[Megan Nelson · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book tells the story of Halloween and how it came to be celebrated on October 31st. The book describes how people used to believe that witches, ghosts, goblins, and elves were real and would appear on Halloween night. The book also describes how Halloween used to be called "All Hallow's Eve", which means "holy evening". The book goes into detail about traditions of Halloween and how when we celebrate it today, we carry on those traditions.
I liked this book! There were a few interesting facts about Halloween that I didn't know until I read this book. Halloween is one of my favorite holidays, so I really just liked reading a book about it! I liked the words on the last page, "Halloween is for all kinds of make-believe and laughter, and for saying BOO!"
I could definitely use this book in the classroom around Halloween, and maybe even do some Halloween crafts (the book talks about making Jack-O'-Lanterns, etc.)! This book would be cute to read on Halloween and ask the students what they are going to dress up as/do to celebrate!

[Brittany Martin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gail Gibbons does a great job of giving many different facts about Halloween. She incorporates common Halloween traditions as well as giving the background to these traditions. Many of these different backgrounds are not well known so even if the reader knows a lot about Halloween, he or she can find something new. This book gives information behind the origin of the name, the story behind a jack-0'-lantern, older traditions, and new traditions.

I found this book interesting because it gave the background story to the jack-o'-lantern. This was something that I had never known before. I found this book to be both interesting an informative.

This book would be great to read during Halloween. It would give a different perspective than most books. It would also be good for an author study on Gail Gibbons or an additional non-fiction resource.

[Bethany Sutherland]

Halloween is a book about the coming of Halloween and the different things people do on Halloween. It used to be thought that ghosts, goblins, elves, and witches roamed the Earth on October 31 and people would make fires trying to scare them away. On Halloween, people dress up in costumes and go to people's houses saying trick or treat. Others go to parties and play games. Pumpkin carving is a main theme of Halloween and going to haunted houses.

I liked the book considering Halloween just happened and I missed it. So the book took me back to when I was a little kid.

I would read this book to the class either on Halloween if it was a school day or right before the weekend if it occurred on a weekend.

[Tricia · Rating 3 out of 5]

simple explanation of the holiday for the preschool set. non-fiction.

[Sarah May · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fair review of this holiday.

[Teri · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not as good as Halloween Is by the same author, and Halloween Is isn't as good as The Story of Halloween, as far a non-fiction historical basis of Halloween picture books go.

[Mya]

read 1 Dec 2015