Book Review : Where the mountain meets the moon

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 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 an healthy life .

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 on 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 a hope to change their fortune minli gets  a goldfish with one of the two copper coins in the house which is the only money that is 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 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 old man of the moon is the rest of the story. 

Review : 

Apart from fantasy , adventure , fairy tale etc, this story also brings in 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 gives her the strength to overcome the obstacles that she faces on her journey .

Her fathers stories helps 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 symbol or traditions of China . While the dragon is a symbol of power and good luck , old man of the moon is characterized based on yue Lao the Chinese god of marriages . 

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 echoes in 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 the past and welcome the bright future .