I loved this book! The illustrations were great and they went well with the story. ( )

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 girl 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. ( )

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A little girl finds shapes in her everyday world, but not all of them will be familiar to those without Chinese heritage and traditions; there's a helpful page in the back with definitions ("Some of the shapes found in this book").

There is only a little text on each page, in simple rhyme ("Square is a checkerboard in the park / Square is my name chop's inky mark"); Grace Lin's illustrations show the objects and actions mentioned.

See also: Green Is A Chile Pepper; Dim Sum for Everyone; Walter's Wonderful Web ( )