Happy Mid-Autumn Festival: Recommended picture books about the moon

   
2008 has been a tru­ly live­ly year, filled with both great sor­row and great joy. With the Mid-Autumn Fes­ti­val approach­ing, the autumn breeze in Bei­jing is refresh­ing. I hope this year’s moon will be even rounder and more beau­ti­ful. I’ve select­ed some books about the moon, most of which I’ve rec­om­mend­ed before, hop­ing they’ll be more enjoy­able to read on this spe­cial day.

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Chi­nese Fes­ti­vals (Amer­i­can Pic­ture Book)

I high­ly rec­om­mend this book for the Mid-Autumn Fes­ti­val because it’s the best book cur­rent­ly avail­able for chil­dren specif­i­cal­ly explain­ing the ori­gins of the fes­ti­val. It includes anec­dotes, leg­ends, folk cus­toms, and even Zhou Zuoren’s essays on the fes­ti­val. It’s rich, engag­ing, and the illus­tra­tions are tru­ly cap­ti­vat­ing. Besides Mid-Autumn Fes­ti­val, this book also cov­ers Spring Fes­ti­val, Lantern Fes­ti­val, Tomb-Sweep­ing Day, Drag­on Boat Fes­ti­val, Dou­ble Ninth Fes­ti­val, Laba Fes­ti­val, and New Year’s Eve.

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Rab­bit God (Chi­nese Pic­ture Book Series)

This pic­ture book, cre­at­ed specif­i­cal­ly for the Mid-Autumn Fes­ti­val by artist Xiong Liang, con­veys a unique cul­tur­al sen­ti­ment through the sto­ry of a child and a Rab­bit God. The so-called Rab­bit God is actu­al­ly a tra­di­tion­al jade rab­bit doll, a beloved gift for chil­dren every Mid-Autumn Fes­ti­val. But that was long ago, and the Rab­bit God has become a dusty antique. Does that child still wait for it? Can the Rab­bit God return?

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Hap­py Birth­day, Moon

This is a remark­ably pure pic­ture book, wor­thy of being a world clas­sic. The moon actu­al­ly has a birth­day? It’s tru­ly inven­tive. But if you ask a child, “Do you know when the moon’s birth­day is?” they won’t find the ques­tion strange. The most inter­est­ing thing is that Chi­nese chil­dren will like­ly answer with­out hes­i­ta­tion: Mid-Autumn Fes­ti­val, August 15th!

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round moon

This is a pic­ture book that is espe­cial­ly suit­able for read­ing on a full-moon night. It shows us a peace­ful and warm night: the boy by the win­dow, the lost pup­py, the lit­tle fish that can’t wait to jump out of the water, the cot­tage by the sea and the injured girl in the field… Although they are silent, they all gaze at the moon and have their own beau­ti­ful bless­ings in their hearts.

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Moon, how are you?

The unadorned style and child­like charm of French pic­ture book mas­ter André d’E­han’s mas­ter­piece, imbued with child­like inno­cence, cap­ti­vat­ed Jim­my Liao, the cre­ator of “The Moon For­got.” As Jim­my Liao said, “There are so many pic­ture books about the moon, but this one could­n’t be left out.”

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The taste of the moon

What does the moon taste like? Peo­ple (espe­cial­ly adults) are unlike­ly to think about it, but ani­mals are incred­i­bly curi­ous. Unfor­tu­nate­ly, no one could reach it. Until one day, the slow­est and dumb­est tur­tle, deter­mined to climb to the top of a moun­tain, fol­lowed by the oth­er ani­mals. They piled on top of each oth­er until final­ly, the small­est ani­mal, the mouse, final­ly reached the moon. He broke off pieces and shared them with every­one else. It’s said that the moon tastes amaz­ing!

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Princess Moon

The lit­tle princess longed for the moon so much that she became sick. Her father, the king, was so anx­ious that he sum­moned the wis­est men in his court. But they were only good at han­dling state affairs and could­n’t even ful­fill a lit­tle girl’s sim­ple wish! Only the jester, con­sid­ered a clown, came up with a solution—and it was a very sim­ple one. He was­n’t much smarter than the oth­ers, just a good lis­ten­er and a bit child­ish.

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Mr. Squir­rel and the Moon

A par­tic­u­lar­ly humor­ous and cre­ative Ger­man pic­ture book. You can think of it as a fun­ny and absurd lit­tle book, or as a won­der­ful mod­ern fable, like Chap­lin’s Mod­ern Times. There are three strange black and white pic­tures in the book. It was not until recent­ly that I dis­cov­ered that in these three pic­tures,The painter is sin­cere­ly pay­ing trib­ute to the film mas­ter Chap­lin!