WEIWEI’S WINTER SOLSTICE – Picture Book Cover Reveal!

On this official winter solstice day, I’m proud to present the picture book cover reveal of WEIWEI’S WINTER SOLSTICE: A DONG ZHI STORY by Michelle Jing Chan and published by Bloomsbury Children’s Books! The release date for WEIWEI’S WINTER SOLSTICE: A DONG ZHI STORY is October 7, 2025. Until then, preorders are available now for this beautiful and culturally-immersive book.

Congratulations to Michelle Jing Chan on her debut book as both the author and the illustrator, and read on for a behind-the-scenes interview with this amazing creator!

Bicultural Mama (BM): What is WEIWEI’S WINTER SOLSTICE about and what inspired you to write it? 

Michelle Jing Chan (MJC): This book is about Dōngzhì (冬至), a traditional Chinese holiday celebrating the winter solstice. Dōngzhì translates to “winter’s extreme” or “winter’s arrival” and is the longest night and shortest day in the northern hemisphere. The festival falls on a day between December 21 and December 23. 

Historically, Dōngzhì was associated with rural and farming communities as an end-of-harvest celebration. After Dōngzhì, the days become longer, ushering in the promise of light, warmer days, good fortune, and hope. In fact, Dōngzhì used to be considered the start of the year instead of the Lunar New Year.

The inspiration for this story came when I visited my hometown in Colorado one winter to see my family. I wrote the first draft curled up in an armchair on a snowy Dōngzhì with record-breaking cold temperatures. Because I grew up in a small town with very few Asian families, my parents made sure that we celebrated traditional holidays to stay connected to our Chinese culture. We celebrated Dōngzhì every winter by eating tāng yuán and doing many of the other activities in this book! The themes of this holiday and of the book are all about finding light on the darkest night and how a home is rooted in not a place, but a family and the traditions you celebrate together.

BM: This is your first book as an author and illustrator. What was the process to get the book published, and how was it the same or different versus when you primarily worked only as an illustrator? 

MJC: When I work on a project as an illustrator, an editor or art director approaches my agent with an existing manuscript that has already been acquired by a publisher. For this author-illustrator project, I had to write the manuscript first and then create a picture book dummy which my wonderful agent, Jemiscoe Chambers-Black, and I submitted to publishers. A picture book dummy is a mockup of the book that has a cover sketch, interior sketches, text, and 2-3 fully finished sample spreads.

This is the first book I have written, and it was a fun challenge to come up with a story and write the manuscript. It was the first time I had done creative writing since I was a kid, and I learned that picture book writing is so much harder than I thought! Because picture books have very few words, every word on the page counts, but the story still has to be engaging and have a strong narrative arc.

BM: How did you develop the cover?

MJC: We had many rounds of sketches, probably more than any other picture book I’ve worked on. It was definitely a collaborative process between my editor Megan Abbate, my art director Jeanette Levy, and myself. Because eating tāng yuán is such a big part of this holiday, I knew I wanted to include a bowl of tāng yuán on the cover.

I started with a few sketches from the perspective of the viewer being outside the house, with Weiwei eating tāng yuán inside the house, but the team felt that these didn’t convey the full impact of a cold winter day. I turned in another sketch of Weiwei eating tāng yuán outside, but we decided it didn’t make logical sense for her to be eating out in the snow.

The next round of sketches were dreamier scenes showing Weiwei eating tāng yuán with a snowy scene behind her. Initially, we scrapped these sketches as well because we weren’t sure if the dreaminess would be clear to the reader or if it would look like she was eating outside again.

The third round of sketches were indoor scenes with the viewer facing the window and looking out at the snow, but similarly, the team felt that this didn’t convey the full impact of a snowy winter day. Based on that feedback, we decided to actually go with a variation of the 2nd round of sketches and landed on a snowy, dreamy landscape scene with the dog and Weiwei eating tāng yuán in the foreground. I love how this cover allowed me to include the plum blossoms and chickadees too, which make appearances in the story!

BM: What other books do you have planned?

MJC: Besides this book, I have two books that I illustrated coming out in 2025: MY LITTLE GOLDEN BOOK ABOUT PRIDE (by Kyle Lukoff) and 100 DAYS (by Kimberly Lee, for which Maria generously hosted our cover reveal!). In 2027, I have a companion picture book to this story, BENNY’S BRIGHT QING MING, and my debut YA graphic novel about asexuality, SOMEWHERE IN THE GRAY. I also have one more unannounced author-illustrator picture book coming out in 2026.

Where to Purchase WEIWEI’S WINTER SOLSTICE

WEIWEI’S WINTER SOLSTICE: A DONGZHI STORY is available for pre-orders on sites such as Amazon. Bloomsbury Children’s Books will release the title on October 7, 2025, nationwide in bookstores and online book retailers. Make sure to reserve your copy!

Michelle Jing Chan Biography

Michelle Jing Chan is a queer Chinese American author-illustrator who studied engineering and economics but now creates art and stories. She makes picture books and comics about cultural pride, LGBTQ+ identity, and kids and teens learning to love their authentic selves. Michelle lives in the Pacific Northwest where she spends her time petting the neighborhood cats, cozying up with a book, or hunting for ghosts and cryptids in a spooky video game. Visit Michelle at www.michellejingchan.com or on social media @michellieart.