Where the Mountain Meets the Moon

June 23, 2017

Where the Mountain Meets the Moon was written and illustrated by Grace Lin. It was published in 2009 and received the Newberry Honor in 2010. Lin is from a small town and was the only Asian in her classroom. She did not want anything to do with her Asian heritage by the time she was eleven. Her mother did not push the culture on her, but kept books about Chinese folktales and fairytales on the shelf for Lin to read. As Lin grew older she wanted to visit Hong Kong, Taiwan and China. The Chinese fairytales came back to her, but she decided to add more details as she was inspired by what she saw during her travels.

Where the Mountain Meets the Moon is a story about a young girl, Minli, who goes on an adventure to change her family’s fortune. Her Ma and Ba are very poor and live in the Valley of Fruitless Mountain. Minli’s father tells her great stories of fairytales every night and she is captivated by them. One day she buys a goldfish from a peddler and then decides to let it go because they are too poor to feed it. When she lets the fish go it speaks to her and tells her how she can find the Old Man of the Moon and change her family’s fortune. Minli decides to strike out at once in hopes of making her Ma and Ba happy.

 

On the way she frees a dragon who can’t fly and he decides to accompany her. They continue on the adventure together outwitting monkeys, finding guardians of a city, surviving poisonous tigers and making it to the top of Never Ending Mountain. As they travel, they meet many new people and learn of their backgrounds and past. All of their lives are connected to the stories of old that her Ba told her. She learns that the fairytales are true. Meanwhile, her mother learns that she was a fool to be unhappy and grumble about their fortune, “For all the time that she had been longing for treasure, she had already had the one most precious.”. (p 254) She finally learns that Minli was all she needed to be happy and even with all the money in the world she will still be unhappy if Minli is not there.

 

Once Minli reaches the Old Man of the Moon she has to make a difficult decision, for she can only ask one question, “Dragon is my friend, Minli said to herself. What should I do?” (pg. 249). Minli chooses her friend over improving her family’s fortune and Dragon is finally able to fly. The result is him finding Fruitless Mountain and completing the myth. Mother Dragon is finally reunited with her child and began to bear vegetation again. All of this did change Ma and Ba’s fortune.

Lin is able to include many Chinese fairytales and folktales into her story. With these stories she creates foreshadowing that hints to the reader how everyone is connected and who they truly are. Lin choses to use language and vocabulary that is more traditional in Chinese. Instead of naming Minli’s father pa as an American reader might be more familiar with, she chose to call him Ba which is more traditional for Chinese children. Also, she chose to create characters and settings that were similar to those of the Chinese culture. For example, Da- A- Fu are the two lucky children displayed during the Lunar New Year. Lin created characters that represented these children and named them accordingly, A-Fu and Da-Fu.

In my own classroom I would like to teach this book in its entirety, but I think due to time constrictions and length I would have to chose parts of it to teach. I would focus on the Chinese fairytales and folktales. With these I could focus on theme and character analysis. It would be easy to compare and contrast the Chinese fairytales to European ones and American tall-tales.

Folktales and fairytales are a great way to capture a child’s interest and teach a very real lesson. In Where the Mountain Meets the Moon, there is the constant theme family is worth more than money and not to be greedy. Most of the characters either showed how greed got in the way or how they were content with their life as it was. This would be applicable to a reader’s own life. Also, it would be interesting to show students how the same themes are shown around the world and how humans are connected by the same basic needs.

How are family relationships depicted?

Family relationships are depicted in two different ways. They show families that are not content and want more and those that are happy with their life the way it is. At the beginning Minli sees that her Ma is unhappy with the fortune in their family and thinks money will make her happy. At the end, Minli and her mother realize that money will not make them happy and they should content with their fortune as it is. The father is an example of unconditional love. He continuously strives to make his daughter happy and never blames his wife for Minli running away.

Who has the power? How is this power shown?

Greed and love have the power in this book. The characters are split between the two. The monkeys, tiger, Wu Kang and magistrate were driven by greed. In the end, all of them fell due to the disscontempt in their lives for not having enough. On the other hand, love was the opposing force that had power over greed. The twins were from a family who was happy and had love for one another, they were able to defeat the tiger. The Magistrate was banished by his own son because of the love he had in his life. Minli found fortune and wealth once she let love overcome her desire to gain more wealth.

What attitudes are shown toward people, animals, and even the land?

Most of the people show love toward the land. The people that live in the Valley of Fruitless Mountain care and tend to the land and live a simple life. The family that lives in the Village of Moon Rain plant seeds that they find in order to spread the beauty of the trees that grow. The King showed love toward his people by taking from the greedy peach seller and giving to his own people. Minli shows love toward all of the animals and people she meets in the story.