Where the Mountain Meets the Moon. Grace Lin. New York: Little, Brown, and Company, 2009. 282 pages. $16.99 (Hardcover). ISBN 978-0-316-11427-1. Grades 3-7.

Reminds Me Of…

Where the Mountain Meets the Moon is a fantastic book. It embodies familiar aspects of adventure, riddles and mystery but gives it a new twist of Asian proverbs and folktales. While this book introduces new stories, it reminded me of some classic favorites. The idea of changing your fortune or your stars is not a new one, but Where the Mountain Meets the Moon introduces a new way of doing so. The Old Man of the Moon and the Book of Fortune hold the answers, but of course the journey to get there is difficult. Changing fortune reminded me of the film A Knight’s Tale, with Heath Ledger. In this film a young peasant boy wants to joust and learn to be a knight and he uses disguise and training to try to better his fortune. While the characters are different, the story of an underdog getting ahead is similar, and I was just reminded of how people want to and often do in fairytales/fiction manage to change their fortune. I know there are other stories like this as well, but I cannot think of titles right now to save my life. The journey to the Never Ending Mountain and to see the Old Man of the Mood definitely reminded my of The Wizard of Oz. Minli may not follow a yellowbrick road, but she does follow a path and she does encounter several helpful friends along the way. I think that readers familiar with The Wizard of Oz will instantly make the connection and enjoy the story. I do love how the friends Minli meets along the way are different, and I love that they share stories with her. I was also reminded of Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland due to the talking fish, dragons, tiger spirit, and other fantastical encounters Minli has along the way. While the overall story is amazing and touching I think the individual stories that are told throughout it really make it special. It is these stories that really show some of the Asian proverbs and culture that Lin wanted to share. The incorporation of all these tales and idea reminds me of some Native American fiction I have read where the elders share stories with the younger ones for entertainment and teaching purposes. For example, Joseph Bruchac’s The Heart of a Chief and Michael Dorris’s Sees Behing Trees mix traditional stories and sayings from Native American culture in to their stories.