Giving Thanks with Halmoni: Celebrating Chuseok

By Julie Yeros

Giving Thanks with Halmoni: Celebrating Chuseok, the Korean Harvest Festival is a warm, inviting picture book that introduces young readers to Chuseok – one of Korea’s most important holidays. It is often compared to Thanksgiving because it centers on gratitude, family togetherness, and a special harvest-time feast.

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Giving Thanks with Halmoni: Celebrating Chuseok, the Korean Harvest Festival

The story follows Halmoni (grandmother in Korean) teaching her granddaughter and her friends how to prepare for a Chuseok celebration. Halmoni shares meaningful traditions such as wrapping small gifts in bojagi (decorative cloth), cooking beloved dishes like pajun (scallion pancakes) and galbijjim (beef stew), and making songpyeon – special half-moon-shaped rice cakes connected to Chuseok.

The anticipation builds as they watch the moon change night by night. When it becomes a bright harvest full moon, the celebration begins.

A gathering of family and friends shares family photos and stories, enjoys traditional dishes, and plays traditional games such as Hwatu and Yut Nori.

Helpful back matter offers kid-friendly context about Chuseok and a brief introduction to lunar and solar calendars.

The illustrations are soft, colorful, and whimsical, with a gentle warmth that matches the story’s tone. The characters are diverse, and the book’s message is inclusive: cultural traditions are something to celebrate proudly – and to share generously with others.

Why it Belongs in Your Read Your World Collection

This book is a natural choice for classrooms and home libraries because it blends cultural learning with universal themes – gratitude, belonging, friendship, and honoring family stories – while also opening the door to cross-curricular connections.

Meet the Authors & Illustrator

Kathleen Choi has collaborated with her mother, Sook Nyul Choi, on her many books for children and young adults. A second-generation Korean American and a parent of two, Choi seeks to preserve knowledge and a connectedness to one’s heritage by keeping Korean traditions alive in her family.

Sook Nyul Choi is the author of the award-winning Year of Impossible Goodbyes, an autobiographically based novel telling her dramatic escape from North Korea to South Korea in the aftermath of World War II. She has written three children’s books: Halmoni and the Picnic, Yunmi and Halmoni’s Trip, and The Best Older Sister.

II Sung Na is the author-illustrator of many books for children. Originally from South Korea, Na studied illustration at Kingston University in London and now lives in Kansas City with his wife, where he spends time teaching illustration courses at the Kansas City Art Institute.

Download a Free Teaching Guide

Pre-Reading Activities, During & After Reading Discussion Questions, Classroom Activities, Extension Ideas, Curriculum Connections, Key Vocabulary, Writing Prompts, Assessment Ideas, and Common Core Connections – from publisher, Red Comet Press

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Posted in Books, Festivals, Freebies and tagged Chuseok, Korea