A Big Mooncake for Little Star by Grace Lin (review)

When Little Star’s mother “laid the Big Mooncake onto the night sky to cool,” Star is determined not to touch it. All that determination ebbs in the middle of the night, however, and night after night Little Star eats away more of the Mooncake in the sky (“Would her mama notice if she took a tiny nibble?”), reducing it to an increasingly slim crescent until it’s “just a trail of twinkling crumbs.” Fortunately, Mama isn’t angry, and she and Little Star get to work making another mooncake to hang in the sky. While the book is noncommittal about the degree of Mom’s possible complicity, this folkloric pourquoi tale effectively blends peaceful bedtime rhythms with the lure of irresistible snacking temptation. The gouache art floats the cozy, realistic figures against an inky black background; Mama and Little Star’s star-patterned pajamas and the phases-of-the-Mooncake spread help convey the underlying meaning of the tale, while their Asian-American identity gives a visual cultural connection for the mooncake. A satisfying contemporary response to Frank Asch’s classic Mooncake (BCCB 9/83) or Thurber’s Many Moons, this could join them in a lunar storytime—or just give youngsters an out for some midnight snacking.