A Big Mooncake for Little Star

For Lin, this book represented a change in theme from examining her Asian heritage to claiming her American identity.^[4] A Big Mooncake for Little Star is about the phases of the moon and represented a new illustrative style for Lin who had previously illustrated her chapter books like Where the Mountain Meets the Moon with block print.^[5][6] In this book, Lin used gouache on watercolor paper.^[7] Black plays an important role in the book's illustrations, contributing to the nighttime sky theme.^[6] Author Samantha Hunt writing in The New York Times wrote of how "the rich darkness of the book’s pages is cut by the glorious gold of the stars".^[8] The food combines with the background to further space imagery with the crumbs of the mooncake become the stars while spilled milk resembles the Milky Way.^[8][9] This reinforces the book's space theme with Little Star's eating of the mooncakes representing the phases of the moon, though this is not directly stated.^[6][7][10] The heavy use of black also allows for more emphasis on where and how the book's text is placed and helps reinforce the space theme.^[5][6] Lin's writing and illustrations combined to produce a mysterious and slightly irreverent tone in this original fable.^[6][11]

The book's mother-daughter relationship gives a reassuring feeling to the reader.^[6][7] Lin was particularly proud of the endpapers and their homage to McClosky's Blueberries for Sal.^[2] She also wanted to capture "the same mother-daughter bond, that timeless love of family, that passing along of traditions and skills. Those things that go beyond race and nationality."^[4] The book was also compared to Maurice Sendak's In the Night Kitchen.^[11][12]

The book was generally well reviewed. It was given a starred review and was named a best book of 2018 by Kirkus Reviews^[5] and Publishers Weekly,^[11][13] while The Washington Post named it as a best book of the year.^[14] It also received starred reviews from Booklist,^[10] with author and editor Ilene Cooper praising the illustrations and Lin's "intriguing characters who come alive through facial expressions", The Horn Book Magazine,^[9] and the School Library Journal.^[7]

The book was a recipient of a 2019 Caldecott Honor for its illustrations.^[15] Lin had tried to tune out the chatter around A Big Mooncake for Little Star being a possible Caldecott book.^[16] She had thought the odds of a win were unlikely, so she scheduled a massage when the awards were announced as a way to, "feel special when the dream ended."^[16] When she hadn't heard anything by mid-morning she thought it wasn't going to happen and so she was surprised when a little while later her phone rang.^[16] The Caledcott had been a signal of quality for Lin who had studied illustration at the Rhode Island School of Design in part because of multiple Caldecott winner Chris Van Allsburg's association with the school.^[16] The Wall Street Journal noted that this book was part of a "cheerful" set of Caldecott Medal and Honor books.^[17]