Book Review : Where the Mountain Meets the Moon by Grace Lin

Book: Where the Mountain Meets the Moon | Author: Grace Lin | Genre: Fiction, fairy tale, adventure |. Age: 9 plus. 

Grace Lin helps the readers to bring back their childhood memories through an adventurous fairytale. This story is based on Chinese folktales which she used to read from her childhood. 

Do you remember, growing a money plant with a belief that it will bring a lot of money, some people say it will bring wealth to the family, but irrespective of all the beliefs and sayings, it gives us a power, a power of hope, which is required for a healthy life. Read a short story synopsis and the Book Review here

Story : 

Minli lives with her parents in a village located in the corner, where the fruitless mountain meets the jade river. The village always looked grey and the land remained brown. The land in the village was tough for farming. People struggled day and night in the stubborn lands to survive. 

Minli's father ( Ba) always fascinates her by his stories and her mother ( Ma) is a person who always sighs, thinking of their poor fortune. 

Fruitless Mountain was just a brown land, without any trees and animals. On the other hand, Jade River is full of dark water. Based on Ba's stories reason for the same is the sad spirit of a dragon named Jade who lived long years ago. There is a possibility to make Jade's spirit happy but it can be done only by the old man of the moon who lives in a never-ending mountain. 

With the hope of changing their fortune minli gets a goldfish with one of the two copper coins in the house which is the only money that has been left in the house since Minli was born, when her mother gets disappointed minli leaves the fish in the jade river. Being relieved from the bowl, the goldfish shows its gratitude to Minli, by revealing to her the way to find the old man of the moon. 

Minli starts her journey, the series of interlinked events and whether she was able to change their fortune by meeting the old man of the moon is the rest of the story. 

Review : 

Apart from fantasy, adventure, fairy tale etc, this story also brings in a lot of good qualities that one should try to possess. Minli the protagonist in the story always follows her intuition, her power of hope, positivity and determination helps her to leave the house in search of something impossible. The characters that she meets on her way give her the strength to overcome the obstacles that she faces on her journey.

Her father's stories help her to gain some nice traits such as helping others and compassion, which in turn helps us to realize the power of storytelling.

Friendly dragon, juicy peaches, the DA A FU kids, old man of the moon, all these characters emphasize the symbols or traditions of China. While the dragon is a symbol of power and good luck, the old man of the moon is characterized by Yue Lao the Chinese god of marriage. 

The story mostly revolves around Minli and the selfish magistrate, all other characters and events are purely interwoven which sometimes tests the knowledge and patience of the reader to understand. 

Thankfulness is the only word that binds the entire story.  Throughout her journey, Minli learns some valuable lessons. There is nothing in the name of good fortune, and everyone should be happy and gifted for whatever they have. Fortune doesn't mean having money and gold, it means the happiness one should have in life, and to be happy we should be thankful for whatever we have. 

The words of the king still echo in my ears even after completing the book. "You only lose what you cling to " -- Most of us think holding on makes us strong, no it's wrong ,sometimes letting go makes us even more stronger, so don't wait let go of the past and welcome the bright future