The Best Kind of Mooncake

PreS-Gr 3–It’s admirable when an author can tell a heavy story with lightness and clarity. This picture book utterly succeeds, packing weighty themes of displacement and loss against a rich, zippy background of early morning in a Hong Kong market. When the narrator is a child in the market, she sees a man interrupt the boring flow of everyday life. He’s tired. He’s sad. Overall, he’s hungry. What happens next changes her outlook forever. While this story is essentially about how we can help each other through tough times, it has the rhythmic bounce and forward motion of a Dr. Seuss or Sandra Boynton story. The text font changes, with bold words and staggered lines, making it perfect for children to follow along and get swept up in the emotions. It’s fast-paced and fun to read, with hilarious alliteration and onomatopoeia a-plenty. The sensory appeal of the illustrations expands the world and captures interest.