ALA Booklist

In a cozy family story rooted in tradition, a little girl stays up late with her parents, Mama and Baba, to celebrate the Chinese Moon Festival. After lighting paper lanterns and hanging them from a tree, they sit outdoors together, eating mooncakes and drinking tea. Best of all, Mama and Baba share three Chinese folktales related to the moon. The magical evening ends when the parents carry their drowsy daughter back inside to sleep in her moonlit bedroom. A short appended note comments on the Chinese Moon Festival. Told from the child's point of view, the narrative is simply written and nicely cadenced. The folktales offer an imaginative addition to the narrative as well as a window into Chinese legend. Created with colored pencils, watercolors, and gouache, the double-page illustrations depict a series of warm family scenes and tableaux from folklore, all suffused with pale golden light. The many rounded shapes reinforce the sense of harmony that pervades the story.

Horn Book

A family celebrates the Chinese Moon Festival by sharing mooncakes, tea, and stories as they sit together, looking at the moon. Mama and Baba tell their daughter tales about the moon's inhabitants: a woman who gains eternal life, a lazy woodcutter, and Jade Rabbit. Warm, glowing watercolors match the story's contemplative and contented mood. An author's note provides background on the harvest holiday.

Kirkus Reviews

Tonight the moon shines like a polished pearl, round and fat." The Chinese Moon Festival is a time to celebrate family, and this year is no exception. Warm and appealing watercolor-and-gouache illustrations show a young girl's family together as they light and hang lanterns, watch the glowing moon in the night sky, drink steaming tea and eat delicious mooncakes. Tonight the girl is allowed to stay up late and listen to her parents tell the tales of characters who inhabit the moon, including a wise and protective woman named Chang-E, a selfish woodcutter known as Wu-Gang, and the kind and sharing Jade Rabbit. Each briefly told tale is a sparkling jewel that contains a valuable lesson about trust, generosity or willpower. The framework of a family celebration is effective and satisfying here, and listeners will enjoy curling up with their parents, learning about or re-experiencing some of the holiday traditions, hearing the funny and comforting stories, and perhaps even drifting off to sleep. An author's note points out the significance of the holiday and explains that "[e]ven relatives who are unable to be with their families can look up at the dark sky and know that their loved ones are watching the same moon." Lovely. (Picture book. 3-8)

Publishers Weekly (Fri Oct 06 00:00:00 CDT 2023)

Seto-s children-s book debut is set during the Moon Festival, a summer festival celebrated by Chinese families with candlelit paper lanterns, moon viewing, mooncakes, and storytelling. A first-person narrative from a small girl describes her family-s practices in the present tense: -Soon there will be mooncakes to eat, sweet and chewy.... They make a circle for me and Mama and Baba. They make a circle for my family.- Benoit (The Secret of the Village Fool) paints quiet, shell-pink and wisteria-tinted watercolors of the girl and her family cuddled under moonlit trees. Embedded in the story are three Chinese folktales that the contemporary family listens to: a cruel tyrant chases his wife until she escapes to a castle in the sky, a lazy woodcutter chops at a cinnamon tree that never dies, and a rabbit offers himself up as a meal to three hungry magicians. Benoit paints these stories- characters in traditional dress, alternating with delicious close-ups of the food the contemporary family eats. An overall sense of magic and possibility is more than enough to temper the folktales- slightly dark moments. Ages 4-8. (Apr.)

School Library Journal

PreS-Gr 3 A generous trim size and skillful use of white space usher readers into this loving story of a little girl and her family as they celebrate the Chinese Moon Festival. The lanterns are set and Mama and Baba snuggle with their daughter as they eat mooncakes, drink tea, and share the stories of Chang-E, Wu-Gang, and Jade Rabbit, legendary characters that live on the Moon. The myths are set off by italicized text and a more formal Chinese painting style, with the characters dressed in traditional clothing. While cautionary in nature, the tales are not frightening and are obviously meant to convey a sense of the family's heritage. In the contemporary story, the mooncakes seem real enough to eat, the teapot and cups are beautifully rendered, and the night sky sparkles. This quiet gem will make an effective read-aloud to introduce the Moon Festival and Chinese culture. Sharon Grover, Hedberg Public Library, Janesville, WI