MIXED-UP MOONCAKES Interview and Giveaway!

SARA: In Mixed-Up Mooncakes, written by Christina Matula and Erica Lyons and illustrated by Tracy Subisak, Ruby gets ready for the Mid-Autumn Festival with her nainai and Sukkot with her zayde. Told in an appealing voice and adorable watercolor and pastel illustrations, Ruby takes the reader from her yard to the Chinese market to the Jewish grocer and back as she narrates her preparations for these celebrations which will fall on the same night, ultimately finding a way to combine her family’s Chinese and Jewish traditions. The origins of each of these festivals is included through explanations from each grandparent. Author and illustrator’s notes share about each book creator’s multicultural family and their connection to this story, along with further information about the Mid-Autumn Festival and Sukkot. A recipe for mixed-up mooncakes is included. Yum! Today the co-authors of Mixed-Up Mooncakes are here to tell us about their collaboration and how you can win your very own copy.

SARA: Welcome to Picture Book Builders, Christina and Erica! What in particular sparked the
idea for a book about a child celebrating Sukkot and Mid-Autumn Festival? What discoveries
came up along the way?

ERICA: Raising Chinese Jewish children, in Hong Kong, this story was particularly meaningful
to me. The problem Ruby, our character, faces is a problem that we tackle as well: how to honor
both traditions when the celebrations fall on the same night. This overlap is often the case since
both the Chinese calendar and the Hebrew calendar are lunisolar. In making the book, I learned from Tracy Subisak (Mixed-Up Mooncakes illustrator) about the Taiwanese tradition of wearing the pomelo peel as a hat on Mid-Autumn Festival. This was something I hadn’t encountered before seeing the beautiful illustrations.

CHRISTINA: Yes, even though I’m mixed Taiwanese, I didn’t know about that tradition, which
sounds so fun. Erica and I met through our wonderful SCBWI Hong Kong chapter. We started
talking about the overlap of Chinese and Jewish festivals and we decided to explore that
together in a picture book. Sukkot is a new holiday for me and I was thrilled to learn about it.

SARA: I co-authored my debut with a friend so I am always interested in writing partnerships.
How did this co-authorship develop? What were the most challenging and joyful parts of
collaborating with another writer? Do you have any tips to share with writers considering co-
authorship?

CHRISTINA: It was really a collaborative process from the beginning. After we chose the
festivals to write about, we made a list of our favourite traditions and made sure we included
them. I think the only challenging thing was that we were living in different places while writing it,
so we never got to sit down over coffee and brainstorm in person.

ERICA: The writing process was nearly seamless. We had very similar visions for the book. It
was a matter of narrowing down our ideas.

SARA: What are your favorite Sukkot and/or Mid-Autumn Festival traditions?

CHRISTINA: I love going to the market to buy mooncakes and trying all the different flavours.
Red bean is still a firm favourite, although I had so much fun making Ruby’s mixed-up
mooncake, from the recipe at the back of the book.

ERICA: For me, I love making decorations, like lanterns, for the sukkah. Since there are no
rules for how to decorate a sukkah, it’s such a natural way to bring the two festivals together.

SARA: Is there anything else you’d like to share about this book?

CHRISTINA: Coming from a multi-cultural family myself, I wanted to share with readers the joys
of having two cultures to call your own.

ERICA: Same. Our world is a blend of beautiful cultures and being multi-cultural means you’re
lucky enough to call more than one your own. While Mixed-Up Mooncakes delves in the the
specifics of two particular cultures, I hope it speaks to any children with multi-cultural families.
Over the summer we sat around the Shabbat table with our family and my mother-in-law pointed
out how around one table was a family that is Jewish and also Chinese, Korean, Mexican,
Persian, and African American.

SARA: What’s next for you both as book creators?

ERICA: The week before Mixed-Up Mooncakes, I celebrated the launch of On a Chariot of Fire,
illustrated by Siona Benjamin and published by Levine Querido. It’s the two-thousand-year-old
origin story of India’s Bene Israel community. I also have several unannounced picture books in
the pipeline for 2025 and 2026.

CHRISTINA: I have a book, The Beat of the Dragon Boat, coming out in April. It’s about a
young boy celebrating the Dragon Boat Festival with his grandparents. It is beautifully illustrated
by Nicole Wong and will be published by Sleeping Bear Press.

SARA: Congratulations on these recent and upcoming titles and thank you for joining us on Picture Book Builders today!

Please comment on this post by October 31 to win a copy of Mixed-Up Mooncakes by Christina Matula and Erica Lyons and illustrated by Tracy Subisak. U.S. or Hong Kong addresses only please. Thank you Erica and Christina for this kind offer!

Congratulations to Lori Tecler for winning a copy of Challah for Shabbat Tonight by Sara Holly Ackerman and Alona Millgram in last month’s giveaway.