Review: Lin, G. (2018). A big mooncake for Little Star.

Lin, G. (2018). A big mooncake for Little Star. New York, NY: Little, Brown and Company.

A Big Mooncake for Little Star is a lovely picture book for youngest audiences that playfully explains the phases of the moon through a story about a little girl named Star and her mama.  With simple text, repeating phrases--“Little Star didn’t think so”--and onomatopoeia like the “pat, pat, pat” of little feet, this story is appealing to preschoolers and up.  

Mythological in tone, it is an origin story of the moon phases.  The characters exist in an undefined space representing the night sky, on edge-to-edge glossy black pages.  They have baked a wonderfully “Big” Mooncake--always capitalized--but Little Star’s inability to resist taking just tiny nibbles each night causes the moon to grow ever smaller, “night after night,” while she doubts that her mother will even notice.  Of course one night it is gone altogether, and her amused mama knows just what happened--again--leading to them happily replace the full moon once more, reflected in the final endpaper illustration of them baking together--exactly as they had in the beginning.

Once again Grace Lin has written and illustrated characters of Asian heritage in an enchanting children’s story, for which she received the Caldecott Honor this year.  The images pop on the stark black pages, and will delight readers with both the light/dark contrast, and the whimsical expressions of a pajama-clad, mischievous little girl, who children will find relatable.

For a book trailer and description of Lin’s upcoming book, When the Sea Turned to Silver, click here.