In the book Where the Mountain Meets the Moon by Grace Lin, Minli wants to change her family’s fortune, so she travels to Never-Ending Mountain to see the Old Man of the Moon. She wants to change her fortune so Fruitless Mountain will be green and her family will have more money.
Telling stories is repeated, again and again, in the whole book. Stories make the book more fun. They are interesting. The stories make everything in the book connect for the reader. The story with happy people and the seed rain from the moon connects with the Old Man of the Moon. The first story in the book about Fruitless Mountain introduces the surroundings. Minli leaves after she hears a story about the Old Man of the Moon, who maybe could teach her to change her fortune.
The contrast in the book it is when Ma tells stories to pass the time in the end. In the beginning she said stories were nonsense and did not help with anything. But in the end Minli was gone and there were no stories so it felt like something was missing without stories.
In the book, Minli hears words of the wiser. She meets many wise people: Ba, a goldfish, and the Old Man of the Moon. Ba says stories cost nothing. The goldfish tells her how to get to Never-Ending Mountain. The Old Man of the Moon says he will answer one question, and that is wise because Minli choose her friend Dragon’s question. That was good because everything turned out good in the end. She realized that changing her fortune did not matter but Dragon needed a question answered more than she needed her question answered. He did not have a family, and he needed to be like other dragons. She cared about him first.
It was a fun story because it all fit together. I liked the ending. Someday I’ll read it again. You should read this book!
Reviewed by C., age 9, for fourth grade writing class
Where the Mountain Meets the Moon (Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, 2009) was award a Newbery Honor in 2010.
