It's that time of year, and if you look around, you'll see the signs. With leaves falling and a chill in the air, it's nearly time. As a group of friends notice the signs of fall, they prepare for Halloween, a celebration where you can be anything you want.

The Bottom Line: This gentle, inclusive tale will appeal to kids in grades Pre-K - K. With rhyming verses and digitally created, colorful art, this picture book is full of seasonal fun.

This review also appears at the Mini Book Bytes Book Review Blog. ( )

Note: I accessed a digital review copy of this book through Edelweiss. ( )

Halloween draws near in this seasonal rhyming picture-book from author Cal Everett and illustrator Lenny Wen. As the days grow shorter and the leaves turn colors, one neighborhood begins to prepare for the great occasion by buying pumpkins for jack-o-lanterns and candy to give out on the big night, and by working on their costumes. The narrative describes many of the things a child can be on Halloween, and concludes with the neighborhood out trick-or-treating together...

Published earlier this year (2021), Halloween Is Coming! is a sweet new picture-book to add to the Halloween shelf. The rhyming text reads smoothly, and the cute, colorful artwork holds the reader's attention. I appreciated the diversity of children depicted in Wen's illustrations, and I enjoyed her use of color throughout. That said, I found the perspective/orientation of some of the scenes off-putting, with the motion moving diagonally across the page in a number of places, in a way that made my eyes feel tired. Perhaps others will not have that issue. Recommended to picture-book readers looking for fun new Halloween stories. ( )