The Mid-Autumn Festival, also called the Moon Festival, falls on the 15th day of the eighth lunar month, when the moon is at its fullest. Families gather to share mooncakes, light lanterns and tell the story of Chang’e, the goddess who lives on the moon. In Korea the season is celebrated as Chuseok, and in Vietnam as Tết Trung Thu. These picture books are a lovely way to share the festival with children.
1. A Big Mooncake for Little Star
by Grace Lin; Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, 2018
Mama bakes a big, glowing mooncake and asks Little Star to wait, but every night a few tiny bites go missing. The story imagines the moon’s phases as the work of one small, sweet-toothed nibbler, and its gentle pictures earned a Caldecott Honor.
2. Thanking the Moon: Celebrating the Mid-Autumn Moon Festival
by Grace Lin; Alfred A. Knopf, 2010
A Chinese American family heads outside for a moonlit picnic with lanterns, mooncakes, tea and pomelos, and each of them makes a quiet wish to the moon. The text is short and simple, and the back pages explain the holiday’s traditions for families who want to celebrate at home.
3. Round Is a Mooncake: A Book of Shapes
by Roseanne Thong, illustrated by Grace Lin; Chronicle Books, 2000
A little girl spots circles, squares and rectangles all around her neighborhood, from mooncakes and paper lanterns to rice bowls and dim sum. The rhymes are a cheerful way to teach toddlers shapes while sharing everyday Chinese and Chinese American culture.
4. Lin Yi’s Lantern: A Moon Festival Tale
by Brenda Williams, illustrated by Benjamin Lacombe; Barefoot Books, 2009
Lin Yi goes to market to buy things for his family’s Moon Festival, and he hopes there will be enough money left over for a rabbit lantern. It is a warm story about bargaining, generosity and putting family first, and the ending tells the legend of the Moon Lady.
5. Mooncakes
by Loretta Seto, illustrated by Renné Benoit; Orca Book Publishers, 2013
On the night of the Moon Festival, a girl sits outside with her parents, sharing mooncakes and tea while they tell her old legends of the moon. It is a calm, cozy read for bedtime that introduces the stories behind the holiday.
6. The Shadow in the Moon: A Tale of the Mid-Autumn Festival
by Christina Matula, illustrated by Pearl Law; Charlesbridge, 2018
While the family nibbles mooncakes under the full moon, Ah-Ma tells two sisters the story of Chang’e and the archer Hou Yi. The book ties the old legend to a modern family’s celebration, and the illustrations are bright and lively.
7. Giving Thanks with Halmoni: Celebrating Chuseok, the Korean Harvest Festival
by Kathleen Choi and Sook Nyul Choi, illustrated by Il Sung Na; Red Comet Press, 2025
Su-Jin invites two friends to help her grandmother get ready for Chuseok, Korea’s harvest-moon holiday, by cooking special foods, wrapping gifts, playing games and honoring ancestors. Along the way the friends compare Chuseok with Thanksgiving, which makes it a natural bridge for classrooms and mixed-heritage families.
Want more festival reads? See my list of Lunar New Year picture books.
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Browse all of Helen’s picture book lists, or see all of Helen’s books.
