It’s all treats and no tricks here as we speed toward Halloween! My treat today is to introduce you to It’s Halloween! (cover pictured)—a hot-off-the-presses book from our brand-new line of offerings for PreK–1 readers, Bumba Books.

It’s Halloween! is part of a six-book Bumba series called It’s a Holiday! Other books in this set include It’s Christmas!, It’s Chinese New Year!, and It’s Ramadan and Eid Al-Fitr! Each Holiday book walks readers through what the holiday is, how it’s celebrated, what special clothing celebrants might wear, what foods they might eat, and when in the year the holiday falls.

It’s Halloween! includes so many features I just love, such as adorable pumpkin icons on the title page, a smiley face in the brand logo (I mean, really—how cute is that?), a table of contents just big enough to introduce this feature to emergent readers without overwhelming them, and “critical-thinking question” sidebars that encourage them to examine the book’s photos and reflect on what they see.

Speaking of the photos: I adore those too. We see glowing jack-o-lanterns, gourds and corn, kids in costume, and a house decked out with a grinning scarecrow—in other words, all the things we love about Halloween.

The text is clear and simple, with each sentence starting on a new line and printed in a highly accessible font. The book ends with a graphic element showing different ways to carve a pumpkin—also useful for teaching kids about facial expressions and what different expressions mean—a glossary defining words such as harvest with a helpful accompanying photo, and a basic index and Further Reading section.

It’s Halloween! is the type of “teachable” nonfiction that also makes a really fun read aloud. If you have kiddos in your life who are the right age for Bumba, I encourage you to treat them to It’s Halloween! as trick-or-treat day approaches.