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    Round is a Mooncake: A Book of Shapes
    Round is a Mooncake: A Book of Shapes
    Round is a Mooncake: A Book of Shapes
    Ebook24 pages4 minutes

    Round is a Mooncake: A Book of Shapes

    By Roseanne Thong and Grace Lin

    3.5/5

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    About this ebook

    A little girl's neighborhood becomes a discovery ground of things round, square and rectangular. Many of the objects are Asian in origin, other universal: round rice bowls and a found pebble, square dim sum and pizza boxes, rectangular Chinese lace and very special pencil case. Bright art accompanies this lively introduction to shapes and short glossary explains the cultural significance of the objects featured in the book. Perfect for read-alouds or one-on-one sharing.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherChronicle Books Digital
    Release dateAug 13, 2013
    ISBN9781452132808
    Round is a Mooncake: A Book of Shapes
    Author

    Roseanne Thong

    Roseanne Thong is an English teacher who divides her time between Southern California and Hong Kong.

    Read more from Roseanne Thong

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    Reviews for Round is a Mooncake

    3.5/5

    50 ratings5 reviews

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    • 4/5
      I really enjoyed reading this book about shapes. The book was centered around a kindergarten to 1st grade reading level. I think that this a good book for introducing or reiterating shapes and providing examples of those shapes. The authors incorporation of culture was very insightful. Every example the little girl finds to represent one of the three shapes, is an item that represents her culture as well. When the little girl, also known as the narrator in this story, is providing an example of something round, her example is a rice bowl in her house. The bowl represents the narrator and her family's culture. In my opinion I think the inclusion of culture is great for children because it opens their minds to a new culture. The illustrator did a great job with the pictures in the book. Each page had a variety of bright, inviting colors which draws a reader in. The illustrations were a big part of the book because for every example of a shape, the illustrator had a picture of the example given which then allows a reader to make a connection between the two. The authors choice of including questions within the story, in my opinion, is a good idea. By asking the question in the book, "What other round things do you see", the author is forcing the reader to stop reading and find examples of things that are either round, square or rectangular. Finding examples shows the readers comprehensions of shapes. The main idea of this book focuses on shape identification. The narrator looked for objects in her everyday life that were either round, square or rectangular and gave numerous examples of those shapes which gives the reader a better understanding.
    • 4/5
      Round is a Mooncake is about a little girl that sees the world around her. From round pebbles, to square tofu, to rectangle boxes filled will dim sum.
    • 3/5
      Author Roseanne Thong and illustrator Grace Lin explore the world of shapes in this engaging concept book with a Chinese-American cultural background. A young girls describes the things around her that are round - mooncakes, her goldfish's bowl - and asks the reader to look for round things on the page. Then she does the same for square and rectangle things. The book concludes with a glossary of some of the words used in the book...The first of three such concept books from Thong and Lin - the other two are Red is a Dragon: A Book of Colors and One Is a Drummer: A Book of Numbers - Round is a Mooncake: A Book of Shapes is a title I sought out because I am currently reading books about the Chinese Mid-Autumn Moon Festival, and I thought that that was what this was. As it happens the content related to the festival consists of the single page about mooncakes. While not what I was expecting, this was still an appealing concept book, pairing an engaging text that gets the child reader involved and bright, colorful artwork. Recommended to anyone seeking concept books about shapes for younger children, and to picture-book readers seeking titles with a Chinese-American cultural background.
    • 5/5
      Round Is a Mooncake: A Book of Shapes,by Roseanne Thong and illustrated by Grace Lin, is a concept book with a cultural twist. A little Asian girl compares many shapes in her neighborhood to her mooncake, “Round is a mooncake/ Round is the moon/ Round are the lanterns/ outside my room”. The rhyming continues on each page and is maintained until the question is posed, “What other round/ things do you see?” The question signals a shift from round to square on the next page. The square theme is presented similarly to the round shapes, and followed by rectangular shapes. The introduction to items found in the Asian culture such as an abacus, dim sum, and name chops, to name a few, are explained on the last page of the book, after the completion of the story. The illustrations in this book are brightly colored with an Asian theme and are panoramic, as they fill the entire page. When comparing this book to Mouse Shapes, the edge this book has is its cultural influence and it’s rhyming verses. It is more than just a cute story to read to a small child; it opens up the eyes to other worlds beyond the one he/she may live in.
    • 4/5
      Roseanne Thong's playful book Round is a Mooncake is about more than just shapes. A young Chinese-American girl, as shown in Grace Lin's bold and pleasing art, guides us through her house and daily life, pointing out objects that mean something to her. Some of what she shows us is overtly culturally Chinese, like the cups of Jasmine tea she prepares in a tea time for her stuffed animals, or the square shape of her "name chop's inky mark." But other verses show a blend of Chinese and American culture, as in "Square is the box/that pizza comes in/And dim sum/made by Mrs. Chin." The two overt missions of the book are fulfilled- to learn about shapes, and to learn some of the terms that describe Chinese-American and traditional Chinese culture. There is a glossary giving further detail on several of the items mentioned. But there is a more subtle underlying message in both the words and the art. You don't have to choose between two cultures, you can live happily in a world that mixes the two. We learn about mooncakes and radish cakes but at the tea party we see...cupcakes! For first-generation immigrants it may be interesting as an illustration of how their children or others who are second generation synthesize their cultures in a seemingly effortless way that is quite different from the process of acculturation many first generations experience. For young asian-american readers it may be nice to see an Asian-american protagonist, since they are still so under-represented in picture books and in media in general.Librarians can use this for story times about shapes, or for presentations about poetry or Chinese or Chinese-American culture. The text is short and rhyming and the pictures are easy to see at a distance. The examples are drawn from daily life and questions are asked throughout to encourage diagetic reading. I frequently recommend this to teachers or students looking for a fun multi-cultural picture book for younger readers. In terms of larger lessons that can be drawn from this book by librarians, it's helpful to compare this book and books like it, by Asian-American writers and artists with older books in your collections that may feature dated or unintentionally racist images of Asians. It is important to children's self-esteem to see images they can relate to as looking like themselves in the world around them. Parents may ask for books with Asian protagonists and a librarian should be able to recommend books that are of high quality, age-appropriate and free of stereotypes. In terms of understanding our patrons we need to know what some of the general differences in life experience between first and second or third generation americans are, and what some of the difficulties each group has had to face. Because Asian-Americans are a minority that has, as a group, had greater academic or financial success than some other immigrant cultural groups, it may not seem readily apparent that racism in some form is still a factor in the lives of most Asian-Americans. Conversely, as best-selling multi-racial author Malcolm Gladwell said regarding his book Outliers: The Story of Success "being a member of an apparently distressed minority can sometimes have enormous advantages." Without an awareness of the challenges and strengths of the immigrant and multi-cultural communities we serve librarians and educators are not positioned to provide the best possible service. Reading about the huge variety of American cultural experience, even if it's "just" in a picture book, helps us gain understandings that go beyond demographics.Siegel, Robert, and Malcolm Gladwell. "Outliers' Puts Self-Made Success To The Test." All Things Considered. Washington D.C., 18 Nov. 2008. NPR.org. National Public Radio, 18 Nov. 2008. Web. 21 Feb. 2010.Thong, Roseanne. Round is a Mooncake: A Book of Shapes. Illus by Grace Lin. San Francisco: Chronicle, 2000. Print.

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    Round is a Mooncake - Roseanne Thong

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