Henry’s First-Moon Birthday written by Lenore Look, illustrated by Yumi Heo

Jenny, Henry’s older sister, narrates this story.  On the day of Henry’s one-month birthday, or his first-moon birthday, as it is called in Chinese culture, Jenny and her grandmother, GInGin prepare the house and the food starting early in the morning. As they complete different tasks, Jenny explains the traditions that accompany this celebration in Chinese culture. The whole family arrives at Jenny’s house – uncles, aunts, grandfathers, and cousins – and they all eat food and celebrate Henry’s first-moon birthday together. At the end of the story, GinGin returns home, now that Jenny’s mother has recovered. Jenny is sorry to see her go, but happy that she has a new younger brother.

The author accurately depicts a specific aspect of Chinese culture – the first-moon birthday - and and explains in fully in a way that is engaging for young children. However, on the last page of the story Jenny says “and this is Baby Henry…his eyes like commas”, which is true of the illustration of baby Henry. Indeed, all of the characters in the story are depicted this way. This is potentially problematic because it feeds the common derogatory comments on Asian’s eyes.  Along with books on other cultures, such as Latino culture and African American culture, this book could provide insight into the extremely diverse world we live in.

In a first grade classroom coupled with class discussions about other aspects of Chinese cultures, this book could be used as a way to talk about cultural diversity. Specifically, this book could be used to plant the idea that one culture is not better or more important than another, and that we should appreciate cultures that are different than our own.

Students may ask questions about Chinese culture as a whole. They also may ask why the birthday is called the “first-moon birthday” instead of the “one-month birthday”. This could be a starting point for a discussion of the many ways in which people celebrate things based on their culture. Students could have an opportunity to discuss things they celebrate in their own cultures as well. Additionally, students may ask about the illustrations. All of the characters are drawn with “commas” for eyes, as mentioned above. If questions about this are brought up in class, then the teacher should make a point of pointing out that Asians do not actually have eyes that look like this, and also bring in discussions about physical features being less important than personalities.

I would recommend this book to parents before I recommend it to teachers. In a classroom setting, the comment the author makes about the physical appearance of Henry, and the subtlest comments about typically Asian physical attributes made through the illustrations could be offensive.