Abigail's Reviews > Mooncakes

A young Asian-Canadian girl celebrates the Mid-Autumn Moon Festival with her parents in this lovely picture-book from debut author Loretta Seto and veteran illustrator Renné Benoit. As the girl describes this special night, in which her Mama and Baba let her stay up late with them, watching the moon, eating mooncakes, and telling stories, three traditional Chinese folktales are worked into her narrative, in the form of tales told by her parents. The first is the tale of Chang-E, who swallowed the elixir of immortality to keep it from her cruel husband, the archer Hou-Yi, and now lives on the moon**. The second is the story of Wu-Gang, a woodcutter who chops eternally at the cassia tree standing in the Jade Emperor's garden on the moon. The third is the narrative of Jade Rabbit, brought to the moon by three magicians, who were amazed at his willingness to sacrifice himself, to feed others...

Only the second children's story I have read that is devoted to the subject of China's Mid-Autumn Moon Festival - the other was Grace Lin's Thanking the Moon: Celebrating the Mid-Autumn Moon Festival - Mooncakes is a lovely little picture-book, one that pairs an engaging narrative with appealing artwork. I appreciated the way that Loretta Seto managed to spin a story about a contemporary young girl and her loving bond with her parents, while also including some moon-related folklore from the Chinese tradition. The illustrations by Benoit, whose work I know from such titles as Lily and the Paper Man , are just lovely, with a wonderfully subtle autumnal palette that felt appropriate, given the subject matter. Recommended to anyone looking for picture-books about the celebration of the Moon Festival, or for children's stories that address Chinese folk beliefs about the moon.

**Folklore enthusiasts will be interested to know that this is just one version of the story. In others, Chang-E swallows the elixir, not to keep it from her husband, but to keep it from an unrelated thief. This variant of the story sees her choosing to live on the moon in order to be close to her husband, who begins the tradition of making offerings to the moon, in order to assure Chang-E that she is still in his heart.