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*Thanking the Moon: Celebrating the Mid-Autumn Moon Festival* by Grace Lin
 
Also by Grace Lin:

Bringing in the New Year

Our Seasons
Thanking the Moon: Celebrating the Mid-Autumn Moon Festival
by Grace Lin
Grades PreK-3 32 pages Knopf September 2010 Hardcover    

Grace Lin’s Thanking the Moon is a beautifully simple story of a Chinese family who takes an evening trip to the country to celebrate the mid-autumn moon festival. Two parents and their three daughters admire the brilliant rural moon, prepare a picnic and arrange a table to honor the moon, bring out traditional Chinese lanterns, drink tea and eat sweet mooncakes. Their purpose is to thank the moon for bringing families together, and they send out good wishes to all.

The book concludes with a succinct explanation of the festival and its importance in Asian cultural celebrations. Thanking the Moon is a perfect complement to the study world cultures, teaching young children that people all over the world are thankful and celebrate families being together.

Grace Lin’s illustrations utilize brilliant color and detail showing modern children, some in traditional attire while others are in more Western-style clothing. While there is just one straightforward sentence on each two-page spread, the illustrations extend the story as we see the family and others in their community preparing to celebrate. The details of the many families celebrating together will remind American children of both Thanksgiving and a Fourth of July celebration. A nice finishing touch on the endpapers are pictures of many of the important material things involved in the celebration – a book of Chinese poetry, lantern, glowsticks, etc.

Pair this book with Atinuke’s Anna Hibiscus to teach American children about modern cultures around the world.
 


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  Kristine Wildner/2011 for curled up with a good kid's book  






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