Where the Mountain Meets the Moon (Newbery Honor Book)

There are many good stories in this book. It was very enjoyable.

Author Grace Lin has produced a masterpiece of whimsy that will delight anyone who are children at heart and who delight in finding new fairytales. The main character is a little girl who wants more than a drab life of despair for her parents and the other villagers, so she risks going on a journey so they can have more. I love all the characters and the lack of a "bad guy". Characters are lifelike, causing difficulty and joys by how they choose to behave just like in real life. Meanwhile, once you've read into the 2nd of the trilogy you realize certain mythical characters are why these books are a trilogy because you see different ages and stages of mythical friends. The descriptions are such that you may want Chinese takeout before you're done with this book.

I read this with my daughters, when they were young, and now with my grandson (who is 6). Rave reviews from all of them!

Nothing for me personally to complain about just things to state with the purchase. There's a sticker, usage marks, and seems like the book was in a murky area because the pages have dark spots - but those things don't bother me.

This book is simply wonderful. The heroine is a young girl who displays strength, curiosity, wonder, and a love of life. All good traits for our children to be indoctrinated with. There is only one scene that was (extremely minimal by today’s standards) violent. This is very important to me as I strive to make sure that my daughter is only exposed to stories that compel her emotional intelligence to evolve. Something that I believe all parents should strive for. This story displays a web of beautiful stories and characters that are carefully woven together to create a masterful tale. I cried at the end of the book. My 4 year old daughter was captivated by the descriptions. We embarked on this story after realizing that we could read chapter books together, without her loosing interest. This began with Mordecai Gerstein’s “The Old Country”, a masterpiece with a similarly strong heroine who also embarks on a seemingly impossible journey. I highly recommend this book for people of all ages, adults and children alike.

I just finished reading this book to my six year old daughter. We enjoyed it so very much. We had been reading a few chapters a night and of course had to do 10 at one time last night so we could find out what happened. She was full of oohs and ahhhs, gasps and sighs. Parts of this book have become allegory for us...she will turn to me and say "this is just like Minli when...". I know this book will become a classic in our family and my daughters will read it to their daughters.

I don't typically write reviews but this book was an exceptional piece of children's literature that I hope makes its way into many more households. Grace Lin's newest book, Where the Mountain Meets the Moon, has done something that very few books have been able to do in our household - hold the rapt attention of both my children from beginning to end. Each night our family would reach a few chapters of this book before bedtime. It immediately captured our imagination and held onto it. My children (and I) loved to look at the beautiful color illustrations that Grace has interspersed throughout the book. Her writing is incredibly descriptive and pulls you into the story. Many others have already written about the synopsis of this book so I will not go into that. I will say that this book was so beloved by my 8 year old that she begged me to buy copies for her teachers so that she could share this book with them in hopes that they will be able to share it with others. As a parent, how could I want anything else from a book? Thank you Grace Lin!

When an author wants to write their first fantasy novel for children, they'll sometimes fall back on the books they themselves loved as kids. If they were Alice in Wonderland fans they might go the route of Neil Gaiman's Coraline. If they were partial to The Wizard of Oz they could do as Salman Rushdie did when he wrote Haroun and the Sea of Stories. As Grace Lin explains in her Author's Note to "Where the Mountain Meets the Moon", some of the books she read at eleven were dozens upon dozens of Chinese folktale and fairytale stories. With her customary cleverness Lin has now taken the essence of those tales and woven them into a quest novel that is a mix of contemporary smart girl pizzazz and the feel of a classic that your parents were read as children. If there's any author out there today with the potential of being remembered and beloved 100 years down the line, Grace Lin has my vote. Poor in the valley of Fruitless Mountain, young Minli and her family earn their daily rice by working and scraping in the fields near their home. Her sole joy comes at night when her father tells her wonderful stories of far away places. One day Minli buys a goldfish to improve her fortunes, but when her mother sees her "foolish" purchase, Minli frees the fish and sets it in the river. Little does she suspect that this single act will give her the impetus to seek her family's fortune by leaving to find the Old Man of the Moon. Along the way Minli makes friends and outwits foes in her attempt to help not just herself but those she loves and cares about. The aforementioned "Haroun and the Sea of Stories" was the book I kept thinking about when I was reading, "Where the Mountain Meets the Moon". Like Lin's novel, Rushdie attempted to reawaken that feeling you get when you read a quest novel where disparate characters band together and become friends along the way. The thing is, Lin has been cleverer than Rushdie here. While his novel was essentially an Oz redux, Lin's world combines old stories and classic myths to come up with something that seems entirely new. The feel of this book has similarities to Oz, in that you feel you are in a safe space when you read this tale. Small children will not be frightened when this is read to them while older kids will relate to Minli and understand what makes her want to run away. In Lin's previous (and younger) novels for kids (The Year of the Dog, The Year of the Rat) she breaks up the text regularly with stories that are pertinent to the action, as well as wonderful little vignettes. While doing so, she impresses you with her writing. Phrases stick in a person's brain, like "The forest was full of shapes and shadows and only barely could he see the faint footprints on the ground - it was like searching for a wrinkle in a flower petal." Lin also conjures up visuals. In one village, each villager cuts a bit of cloth from their own clothes to provide Minli with a warm coat. When she leaves, she waves

Minli lived with her parents in a small village, in the shadow of Fruitless Mountain. The family - indeed, the whole village - was desperately poor. Minli's mother bemoaned their threadbare clothes and scanty food. But her father, even though gray and overworked, cheered up every evening when he told Minli one of the Chinese folktales that delighted her. Some of her favorite stories were about the Old Man of the Moon, who lived on the Never-Ending Mountain, and knew everything. When a goldfish seller came to the village, Minli was enchanted by the cheerful, bright fish, so different from the gray and brown world that she lived in every day. On an impulse, she spent one of her two copper coins, and bought a goldfish to bring fortune to her home. Minli's mother was not happy with the goldfish. They had barely enough to eat; how could they feed a pet? After her father gave up a few grains of his precious dinner rice to feed the fish, Minli realized what the sacrifice would be to feed it, so she sadly released her goldfish into the river. To her surprise, the grateful goldfish told Minli how to find the Never-Ending Mountain of her father's folktales. There, she could ask the Old Man of the Moon how to bring good fortune to their house. So Minli set off on a journey to find the Never-Ending Mountains. Along the way, she met a dragon who couldn't fly, and other mythical characters who taught and helped her on her journey. Interwoven with Minli's story are wonderful stories written in Chinese folktale style. These stories, told by Minli's father, become both the backdrop and the framework for the story of Minli's adventures on her journey. Overall, a lovely, lyrical book, written for ages 8-12, but more widely enjoyable. A parent or teacher would find joy in reading this book aloud to younger children, who also would be fascinated with Minli's magical journey. Quickly, get this book while you can. And while you are at it, buy one for a gift for every child you know. A true classic.

This is a beautifully written fable for people of all ages, not just those in grades 3-6. I just finished reading this story to my five year old. I think I may have gotten more from it than she did but she was enraptured as we read three chapters ever night for the last few weeks. Minli is a girl whose family is very poor. Her mother is embittered about their lack of fortune while her father tries to cheer the family up with fanciful tales. All day the three work in the rice fields and eek out just enough from the harvest to provide one bowl of rice each night. Determined to change their fortune, Minli sets out to find the Old Man of the Moon. Old Man of the Moon holds the book of fortune and can not only tell the future, but also change the future. As Minli journeys to find Never Ending Mountain, the home of Old Man of the Moon, she is joined by a flightless dragon who has lived for years upon years in the forest, hiding and alone. Along the way, Minli meets and hears the fortunes of the very rich and the very poor until she learns an important lesson about herself, her family, and their fortune. While Minli is away, Ma and Ba have to come to terms with Minli's absence. About every other chapter, there is a Chinese fairy tale told by one of the characters (never Minli though). Each one of these stories are interwoven with each other like the tangled strings of Fortune that Old Man of the Moon ties to the figures on the earth. There are many good "teachable moments" in the story from each encounter than Minli has in her journey and enough food for thought that adults who read it will come away satiated. While I loved that it had Asian aspects to it, I hope that it will not deter others from reading it because Minli's adventure is one for any culture.