Fantasy Book Review: Where the Mountain Meets the Moon

1.BIBLIOGRAPHY

Lin, Grace. 2009. Where The Mountain Meets The Moon. New York: Little, Brown and Company. ISBN: 9780316114271.

2.PLOT SUMMARY

Living in the Valley of Fruitless Mountain, a cursed land full of muddy color, a young poor peasant girl named Minli lives with her parents in a little wooden shack barely big enough for 3 people to sit around. Life was so difficult that Minli’s mother keeps complaining about it. The family spent their days working hard in the field parsed by the sun just to be able to have a bowl of rice to eat each evening. At night, Minli’s father always tells his daughter her favorite stories, especially of the Jade Dragons and the Old Man of the Moon. Minli believes in the enchanting stories and embarks on an extraordinary journey to find the Old Man of the Moon to ask him how her family can change their fortune. She encounters an assorted of cast of characters and magical creatures along the way, all of which give her a lot of excitement, humors and wisdom. Through her journey, she has heard a lot of stories and has learned to fine herself and understanding of life.

3.CRITICAL ANALYSIS

"Where the Mountain Meets the Moon" is a fantasy book for children of younger age. However, reading it one will find it is intriguing and will be of interest to even adult readers. There is also a lot of wisdom of the east ones can learn from. It was woven well between the old fables, tales and wisdoms with the literacy presentation in the form of children fantasy writing.

I will analyze the book using the usual criterion of Characters, Plot, Setting, Theme and Style as follows.

Characters

The main character is Minli, the poor Chinese family’s active little girl. She is a smart and determined girl with a quick decisive action. Minli is a brave and adventurous girl who is ready to take charge and find wisdom through hardship and journey in order to find answers to her quest.

Plot

The Valley of the Fruitless Mountain is cursed by the Jade Dragon with dryness after the people have complaint of having too much rain which the Jade Dragon has been providing to them for generations. As a result, the people have to work hard even to produce enough grains of rice to feed themselves. Through the struggles, a poor family’s daughter sets out a journey to find a way to solve the poverty problem for her family by trying to find the Old Man of the Moon her father has been telling her about in his nightly story. The girl finds wisdom on her journey and received a great fortune from those she found on her way. At the end, Minli comes home and the Fruitless Mountain never is the same.

Setting

The story sets itself in a sun parched dry land of rural China where all houses and environments turn brownish because of the dry clay they have been stomping on trying to make it a workable paddy rice field.

Theme

The theme story of the story portrays a poor family struggles to survive. Seeing the hardship her family has been facing, Minli, through the belief in the stories her father has been telling her, took of to find the Old Man of the Moon who knows how to change their fortune so she can help her family to be better. Through out the journeys, Minli learns more wisdom and at the end knows what her family should be like.

Style

The story is woven very cleverly through the use of old Chinese tales and fables in a very beautiful and elegant language. The chapters are proportionally short and the full color illustrations at the opening of the chapters make it very enjoyable. The fonts used are large and make it easier to read.

4.REVIEW EXCERPT(S)

Newbery Honor Books
Children’s Notable Books
School Library Journal reviewed that the author's writing is elegant, and her full-color illustrations are stunning.
Starred Reviewed from booklist that stories, drawn from a rich history of Chinese folktales, weave throughout her narrative, deepening the sense of both the characters and the setting and smoothly furthering the plot.
Librarian named Bogart, Debra reviewed that the book is a charming fantasy with very low violence, making it a great family read-aloud for various ages.

5.CONNECTIONS

The first connection book I found is also a fantasy fiction about moon. A boy named Harold wanted to walk in the moon light, so he drawled a moon with his purple crayon. He started to his magic journal with his imagination.

Johnson, Crockett. 1998. Harold and the Purple Crayon 50th Anniversary Edition. New York: HarperCollins. ISBN: 9780064430227.

The second connection book I found portrayed a traditional Chinese Mid-Autumn Festival, including author's note explaining this festival's customs and tradition. Each member of a Chinese family contributes to the celebration of the Mid-Autumn Moon Festival. This book could be a good supplement book for people who don’t understand the meaning of moon for Chinese.

Lin, Grace. 2010. Thanking the moon: celebrating the Mid-Autumn Moon Festival. New York : Alfred A. Knopf. ISBN: 9780375861017.