In less than a week, millions of Koreans will be celebrating Chuseok, a mid-Autumn harvest festival that’s one of the biggest holidays of the year. They will travel from all over to visit their ancestral hometowns, where they’ll spend time with their families, honor their ancestors and share a big feast.

Since my family didn’t observe this wonderful holiday when I was growing up in Hawaii, I knew very little about it until I read Giving Thanks with Halmoni: Celebrating Chuseok, the Korean Harvest Festival by Kathleen Choi and Sook Nyul Choi, illustrated by Il Sung Na (Red Comet Press, 2025).

Children’s books about Chuseok are actually few and far between, so this delectable title is a very welcome offering. Love that it was written by the same mother-daughter team who collaborated on one of my favorite Korean American picture books, Halmoni and the Picnic (1993). I still remember how excited I was when first reading it 32 years ago (back then, picture books by and about Korean Americans were almost non-existent). How wonderful that all these years later, the Choi family is bringing us yet another heartwarming intergenerational tale. 🙂

The halmoni (grandmother) in this new story has recently moved to America. She describes Chuseok (which coincides with the big, bright Harvest Moon), to her granddaughter Su-Jin and her friends Maddy and Keisha, who notes that it sounds a lot like Thanksgiving. Later, when Su-Jin tells her friends that Halmoni likely misses hosting Chuseok dinner with her family and friends in Korea, the girls decide to ask Halmoni to help them throw a Chuseok party for all their friends.

Halmoni is only too happy to oblige, while the girls are excited to pitch in with all the preparations. As the moon grows smaller and smaller, Halmoni first shows the girls how to wrap special Chuseok presents with a pretty cloth called bojagi.

When the moon finally disappears, it’s time to begin serious preparations. The next night, a tiny sliver of the moon appears; while it grows each night after that, Halmoni and the girls shop for ingredients and make several traditional dishes such as Korean scallion pancakes (pajun), japchae noodles, a traditional beef stew called galbijjim, and three-color vegetables.

Halmoni reminds them that Chuseok is also a time for expressing gratitude as they remember their forebears. Maddy suggests they share what they are thankful for — just like at Thanksgiving — while Keisha wants to share pictures of her great-grandparents and tell their stories.

The night before Chuseok — when the moon is almost full — Halmoni shows the girls how to make the special half-moon-shaped rice cakes called songpyeon. They roll out rice flour dough, then stuff them with sweet fillings like sesame seeds, chestnuts, or sweet red bean paste. When they steam the rice cakes on a bed of pine needles, the whole house smells like autumn.

Finally, it’s Chuseok! The full moon seems larger and brighter than ever. Halmoni explains that “the moon lights the sky from dusk to dawn.” In ancient times farmers were happy to have so much moonlight to finish their work, a good reason for celebrating the Harvest Moon.

Then the feast is set out on the table, with gifts at each place. The guests soon arrive to much merriment as they sample all the homemade foods, share stories and pictures about their families, and play board and card games. Halmoni gives the girls a big hug, thanking them for making her feel so welcome. Now she is anxious to learn all about Thanksgiving and to celebrate it with them.

Il Sung Na’s winsome illustrations, rendered in warm autumnal browns, greens, greys, pinks and golds, joyfully extend the narrative and heighten the spirit of togetherness. Each page turn is sheer delight with Na’s use of a Korean patchwork quilt to inform his compositions and amplify the central themes of diversity, inclusion, and cooperation.

We are introduced to this motif with the “quilt” endpapers, its shapes and colors appearing throughout the book in various forms (rugs, cloth gift wrap, rice cakes, tablecloths). Love the double page spreads consisting of panels that echo the squares and rectangles of the quilt showcasing important story elements, everything from the phases of the moon, to recipe ingredients, to the faces of the main characters.

Just as Halmoni follows the lunar calendar in concert with her agrarian ancestors, the moon’s frequent appearance in the book effectively denotes the passage of time in the storyline. Whether small or large, distant or looming, the moon becomes its own character, with the double page full moon Chuseok day spread a dramatic highlight.

Na’s fetching characters — active, playful, enthusiastic — will pull readers right into the story. It’s fun to watch them wrap gifts, make rice cakes, play games, share stories, gaze at the moon. I especially love the spread showing all of Su-Jin’s multiethnic friends gathered around the table, clearly enjoying the special foods and the lively conversation.

In addition to being a good introduction to Chuseok, this beautifully written, festive story of friendship, acceptance, kindness, and cultural heritage touts the rewards of welcoming newcomers, working together, being open to learning something new and sharing what you know with others.

It’s wonderful to see Su-Jin and her friends excited about learning about Chuseok from Halmoni, who in turn is anxious to learn all about Thanksgiving from them. Such cross cultural, intergenerational exchanges send a positive message to all, but especially to recent immigrants. No doubt kids will like the idea of another holiday to celebrate, and they’ll be curious to try some of the traditional Korean foods that are new to them.

Back matter includes information about the origins and historical significance of Chuseok and the lunar calendar. Another rice cake, please!

Chuseok jal bonaeseyo! Have a good Chuseok!

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GIVING THANKS WITH HALMONI: Celebrating Chuseok, the Korean Harvest Festival
written by Kathleen Choi and Sook Nyul Choi
illustrated by Il Sung Na
published by Red Comet Press, August 2025
Picture Book for ages 4-7, 32pp.
*Includes End Notes

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*Interior spreads text copyright © 2025 Kathleen Choi and Sook Nyul Choi, illustrations © 2025 Il Sung Na, published by Red Comet Press. All rights reserved.

**Copyright © 2025 Jama Rattigan of Jama’s Alphabet Soup. All rights reserved.