A Big Mooncake for Little Star

Grace Lin
Little Brown and Co
Age 3-5

Little Star has made a great big moon cake with her mama. It took a long time to bake and when Mama places it in the night sky to cool she tells Little Star they need to make it last so she mustn’t touch it. Little Star tries to remember Mama’s words, but in the middle of the night the delicious moon cake is just too tempting. Night after night Little Star tiptoes to the moon cake and has nibble after nibble. Unsurprisingly the moon cake is getting smaller and smaller….

A delectable, prizewinning picturebook full of warmth and love with striking illustrations. It celebrates the Asian Mid-Autumn Moon festival and also provides a great introduction for children to the phases of the moon.

The book’s creator, Grace Lin introduces the book here

Share the story

Read aloud
Read the story aloud to your child allowing time to enjoy the illustrations and talk about what is happening when your child wants to.tion.

Join in
As they become familiar with the story children could join in by reading the words ‘pat, pat pat.’ Try leaving the ends of some of the sentences for children to complete. For children beginning to become aware of print, point to some of the repeated words such as ‘Little Star’ and ‘Big mooncake’ as you read them.

Talk about the story
◼︎Share favourite parts of the story, this is more fun if you join in and talk about why you liked a particular bit
◼︎Share your favourite illustrations. Did you choose the same one? What was it that drew you to a particular image?
◼︎If you were Mama what would you say to Little Star when she finds the mooncake has disappeared?
◼︎Was there anything in the story that surprised you?
◼︎Talk about the moon

Watch the story read aloud

Things to make and do

Look at the night sky
If you can, look at the night sky and the different shapes and sizes of the moon as it changes throughout the month and talk about it together.

Bake some moon cakes
Bake moon cakes together.* You could use your own favourite biscuit mix to make flat mooncakes like the ones in the story. Here is a biscuit recipe you could use if you don’t have one: https://thehappyfoodie.co.uk/recipes/fork-biscuits/ Collect the ingredients and talk about the processes as you prepare them.
*There are lots of different recipes for mooncakes which are frequently made from pastry with a filling of red bean or lotus seed paste. The author has imagined a flatter version in the story.

Paint a picture
Paint a picture of the night sky. Use yellow paint on black paper to create a picture of the moon and stars. Will the moon be big and round or a tiny slither? You could try splattering the paint (carefully!) by flicking the hairs of the brush to create stars in the sky.

Make a playdough display
Use yellow or white playdough to make the differing shape of the moon together as it changes from a full circle to a tiny crescent.

Alternatively, you could make a mobile of the phases of the moon -see the author’s website, link below, for how to instructions.

Find out more

Find out more about the Mid-Autumn Moon Festival here

Find out more about author/illustrator Grace Lin

Explore the additional activity ideas for A Big Mooncake for Little Star on the author’s website

Read another picture book by Grace Lin, titles include:

A Big Bed for Little Snow

Once Upon a Book

Thanking the Moon