You need to sign in or sign up before continuing.
Take a photo of a barcode or cover
4.33 AVERAGE
4.33 AVERAGE
A book that every parent should read to their child.
This beautiful book incorporates Chinese Folklore and the beauty that is imagination.
Intertwined are messages of Hope, Faith, Compassion & Thankfulness.
When Minli decides to ask the question on behalf of the Dragon instead of her own question, that shows selflessness, something I strive for.
The story that Ma told where she had become bitter about not being wealthy or having beautiful things was impactful as I realised (at the same time Ma did) was that I have everything that brings me joy, right here ♥️.
I have a beautiful home, a lovely family & I am able to work towards anything I put my mind to. I am surrounded by the things and people that I love & for these reasons alone, I am so thankful.
This book opened my eyes to both my life as well as life in general and how short it is & how we must embrace it and love it to the fullest.
5/5 ⭐️
This beautiful book incorporates Chinese Folklore and the beauty that is imagination.
Intertwined are messages of Hope, Faith, Compassion & Thankfulness.
When Minli decides to ask the question on behalf of the Dragon instead of her own question, that shows selflessness, something I strive for.
The story that Ma told where she had become bitter about not being wealthy or having beautiful things was impactful as I realised (at the same time Ma did) was that I have everything that brings me joy, right here ♥️.
I have a beautiful home, a lovely family & I am able to work towards anything I put my mind to. I am surrounded by the things and people that I love & for these reasons alone, I am so thankful.
This book opened my eyes to both my life as well as life in general and how short it is & how we must embrace it and love it to the fullest.
5/5 ⭐️
Outstanding book! This was our family reading club book, and I enjoyed every page of it -- very lovely themes and complexly interwoven subplots. I'm tempted to reread it to make sure I appreciated all the subtleties. I will be recommending this book to every child and child-at-heart I meet!
Chinese folklore stories coming to life with magical creatures, such as talking goldfish, dragons, and the man on the moon. A young girl lives in a dull, lifeless village and she is tired of seeing her mother so depressed about their families non-fortune. The girl listens to the goldfish and goes off to search for the impossible in order to change their family's fortune. She befriends a dragon who cannot fly and many other people along the journey. She learns about their life style and why they would not change their fortune if they met the man on the moon.
The theme of the story is about faith, family, and friendship. The story is created around Chinese folktales and pull in rich history of people living in villages in China. Very compelling and intense story but written elegantly with full-color illustrations.
The theme of the story is about faith, family, and friendship. The story is created around Chinese folktales and pull in rich history of people living in villages in China. Very compelling and intense story but written elegantly with full-color illustrations.
There may have been tears while listening to this. Everyone should read this book! The moral is so important for all people.
I wasn't 100% liking the narrator of the audiobook, at times I found myself getting drowsy from her voice (not a good thing while driving).
I wasn't 100% liking the narrator of the audiobook, at times I found myself getting drowsy from her voice (not a good thing while driving).
Have you ever had a story that left you a little bit wonderstruck, a little bit tongue-tied, with no words to describe it? If you haven't, read this book. If you have, you should still read this book. Thankfully, it has two other books in the series that are just as good and only add to this one, serving to make it even richer than it already is.
If you're looking for Chinese fairytale style meets puzzle meets intricate plot and character with a meaningful message behind it, 1) that's very specific, you'll have better luck if you look at a broader topic and 2) that's this book. That still does absolutely no justice to it, but it is so good I'm not sure how to describe it.
Also the artwork is such intricate, colorful, BEAUTIFUL work. I've never seen a more well-designed book, and I love just holding it in my hands not only because the paper is thick, good quality paper, not only because the cover has such a nice matte feel, not only because the book itself is such a nice heavy weight, but because the artwork is wonderful. I want to frame some of the pictures and put them up, they're that good.
Every single detail is important, and every single character that comes into the story in a significant way is significant to the entire scheme of things. There are so many stories woven in, but the author does such a great job of keeping everything understandable. Not everything is chronological, but the further you read the better it gets - things don't have a connection until you get to the end and then everything clicks.
However. If you're one of the few people for whom the book didn't click the first time you read it and you finished the book a little bit confused, I've written it out in chronological order so that you can keep track of what went on at what time and why it was significant:
(MAJOR spoils ahead, please don't spoil it for yourself even if you don't think the book is going to be your cup of tea. I didn't think it was going to be mine, either, until I read it.)
It starts, first of all, with Jade Dragon having a fight with her children because she won't give humans water, so they turn themselves into water to save the humans. Overcome with grief and mad at herself for her stupidity and stubbornness, she falls from the sky and her broken heart turns into a mountain that is barren and dry, hoping to be reunited with her children one day. This mountain is fruitless so it's called Fruitless Mountain and the rumor is if she's reunited with one of her children, it will become fruitful.
While Jade is being turned into a mountain of grief, Wang Lee is a man who goes after his fortune wholeheartedly, leaving behind a little more of his life as he goes (first his parents, then brothers, then wife and children as he moves on to pursue ambitious success), eventually running into the Old Man of the Moon (OMOTM) who tries to teach him everything he needs to know but Wang Lee is still not satisfied so OMOTM takes him to a tree and tells him that as soon as he chops down that tree, he will have achieved the best of his life or something, so Wang Lee starts cutting...
Jump forward a few decades: a famous painter goes to Fruitless Mountain, gets a stone, and turns it into an inkstone to hold his paint. Then he goes back home and makes a painting of a dragon, but doesn't give it eyes. This painting is for Magistrate Tiger.
Magistrate Tiger has a run-in with OMOTM concerning his son's wife. Magistrate Tiger is mad, rips the paper, orders the girl to be killed. The ripped paper is the Borrowed Line (1 of 2).
He goes in search of a family's happiness by ordering them to give it to him. It gets lost, he gets furious. The family goes up the mountain to enjoy family time before the Magistrate Tiger has them executed (he's on his way), and then they, after loosing their kites (aka wishes) up to the moon, turn around and go back down, only this time the mountain has turned into the Mountain That Meets The Moon (which is important). So they come back to their house and the Magistrate, who's at the normal mountain they USED to live by, can't find them and is confused, embarrassed, and still furious. So he goes home. When he gets home, he hears that the 2yo got away. Sucks.
After a few years, Magistrate Tiger gets a painting as a gift to lower the taxes in the painter dude's village, but he sees that the dragon has no eyes and says he'll double taxes - but the servant brings a pot of ink and he decides to fix them himself. That makes the dragon come alive bc he was painted using the inkstone made from Fruitless Mountain, AND he's a dragon, which means this dragon, now alive, tho not Jade Dragon, is made from her - meaning he IS related to her, he comes alive and runs off, straight through the wall.
He stays in one location, watching a peach pit grow into a tree and then a grove. Then monkeys come and claim the territory so when he goes back for second helpings the monkeys decide to tie him up.
Since he's a painting - and a dragon to boot - he's basically immortal. Think of Prometheus without the pain.
While all that's going on, and the dragon is working on creating a river to drown himself in,
a fish is being born who wants to swim all the seas of the world in hopes to find Dragon's Gate. She starts on her journey around when the Dragon starts on his river.
So while Dragon's tied up in business, OMOTM's gdaughter goes back and forth, weaving string and then delivering it to him, for years.
Back home with the Magistrate Tiger, he has a son who grows up, gets married to a girl who covers up a scar she got from guys who tried to kill her when she was two. Thankfully she got adopted by the Emperor when her gmother died and that's how their marriage came about. So Magistrate Tiger's son grows up and rules the City of Bright Moonlight (CBM), with his dad living there. But everybody hates his dad bc he's wreaking havoc on everything so the son boots him out.
MT goes off nursing ideas of sweet revenge but dies before he gets a chance. As his spirit gets out of his old, dead body, it's so full of anger that it stays and turns into a big, green tiger. Thankfully he is reunited w the Big Happy Family who have a secret they still haven't shared. So he decides to ruin them by killing things w his poison claws.
While he's on a rampage, son rules wisely and well w the ripped paper the MT took from OMOTM. The lions outside the city got visited before the MT got kicked out, and they were also given a borrowed line from OMOTM, only it's one of the granddaughter's ribbons (OMOTM's gdaughter who delivers them to him). That ribbon is the Borrowed Line (2 of 2).
While all this is happening, Minli frees a fish who was captured by the goldfish seller. Fish, once freed, tells her that Fish has been trying to swim all the rivers and had one to go when she was captured. Then Minli bought her and put her in the last river, and now she can find Dragon's Gate - which is right by the mountain that the Jade Dragon died on/by/with/as. So the fish (Aunt Jin, remember that) thanks Minli by telling her how to reach OMOTM and goes on her way.
A little bit before Minli runs away, a buffalo boy from CBM goes with his buffalo and stumbles upon some sisters in the woods. He strikes up a friendship with one, the granddaughter of the OMOTM, and they meet regularly every time she's on her way to her gdad's.
Back to Minli, after freeing the fish, she runs away, meets up with Dragon, frees him but is stopped bc of monkeys. She traps the monkeys, they hit the road, and end up at CBM. She meets up with Buffalo Boy, spends the night in his hut while he goes and talks to gdaughter. She watches gdaughter give Buffalo Boy the instructions for how to see OMOTM but it doesn't click for Minli yet that gdaughter is related to OMOTM. Next morning, she sees the king and runs after him, gets into the palace, and starts talking to the king. They have dinner together and talk abt the Borrowed Line that he has thanks to MT.
Speaking of MT, he's busy demanding a child from Big Happy Family for a month of peace. The family has named their village the Village of the Moon Rain (VMR), and have found a recipe of tea that heals the poison from MT, thanks to Wang Lee, who's tryna chop down the tree in the sky. Since they live on the OMOTM's mountain, Wang Lee's efforts make it rain on them every night. While they're dealing with MT, Minli is discussing the Borrowed Line (1/2) with MT's son who hands it over after reading it, bc it tells him to (you can only read the line in the moonlight which is why they call it the City of Bright Moonlight). So she leaves, triumphant, and runs into Dragon right outside the gate.
Dragon's been busy while she's gone, striking up a convo w the stone lions guarding the city who give him a ribbon - the Borrowed Line, he assumes, bc it was given by OMOTM to keep the city together. Thankfully it's still together, so they give him the Line (2/2). Dragon waits for Minli, they swap stories and head over to where the Mountain meets the moon, per gdaughter's instructions.
While traveling, they meet a fish who asks if Dragon is her aunt Jin. They say no and keep going, after Minli notices how familiar that fish looked.
During their travel, Da-A-Fu (twins from Big Happy Family) hatch a plan to get the Tiger out of their hair.
Meanwhile, Ma and Ba have seen the light and decide to wait for her at home. All the while, Ma is feeling worse and worse to about driving her daughter to discontentment and a desire to pursue better things. Unlike MT, Ma realizes that always wanting more isn't really everything in life - family is better. Because if you have family, you can help each other no matter what.
As she's coming to realize the error of her ways, Minli and Dragon arrive at the mountain and spend the night in a cave but in the morning, Minli walks out and meets the green tiger and yells, Dragon comes out and roars at the tiger - he is much bigger but MT swipes at Dragon and runs off. Relieved, Minli and Dragon go back to the cave - Dragon doesn't feel good and is bleeding, so Minli says they'll rest and he drops off to sleep p quickly while she stays up worrying.
Meanwhile Da-A-Fu are tracking down MT. The girl twin, A-Fu, takes part of the boy twin, Da-Fu's, pantleg, and while he hides behind a rock, girl walks up the trail in search of the MT.
In the cave, Minli is worried about Dragon, his breathing raspy and uneven. The MT's scratches have swollen, turned black, and Dragon won't wake up when Minli calls his name. So she tells him she's going to get help and runs off. As she's going in search of the mountain, A-Fu comes up the mountain.
Minli runs into Da-Fu, literally, and he tells her to be quiet and watch. A-Fu comes up to the Tiger and explains there is supposed to have been two offerings but a younger tiger ate her bro (sniff sniff) - cue pantleg. MT is curious - what tiger? A-Fu continues. This young tiger claimed to be stronger than MT who is his dad. Young Tiger claims MT is a coward, can't face his son. MT is mad. A-Fu continues. If MT would like to know where he is, she can show him. She leads him to a well, he sees himself and roars. The reflection does the same, the echoes of the mountain help the effects, and A-Fu tells him his son (king of the CBM) is mocking him. Well enough is enough so MT jumps in and that's the end of that.
Da-Fu comes out and they celebrate and then Minli says her friend is hurt by MT, and could they help.
Around this time is when Aunt Jin finds the gate.
They get to VMR, she sees that there are a lot of trees, the twins are cheered bc they defeated MT, and also scolded because they did it alone, and then they introduce Minli and go to the grandpa who can help.
So they head back to the cave w the gdad and are surprised when her friend turns out to be a dragon. Gdad gives him tea and bathes his arm in it. Tea? Yes - seeds that fall from the sky every night which, once planted, are trees whose blossoms help the sickness. So, despite being moved to the mountain after being pursued for their happiness by the MT, they still have good things even if they live on rocky soil and are pursued. Dragon gets better and they go back to the village.
Once Dragon is well, the villagers give her a jacket as a goobye present as she and Dragon (with the escort of Da-A-Fu) head for the top of the mountain and, ultimately, home.
Finally they arrive and Minli and Dragon pull out the paper and ribbon. How to get across the gap to the mountain? Well, Da-A-Fu suggest, do it the way their ancestors got their wishes across to the OMOTM. So Minli ties the ribbon to the paper - the two borrowed liness - and throws it in the air, assuming she'd just let go when the ribbon ran out. Then Minli asks her escorts, Da-A-Fu, if there is anything they want asked so they can change their luck? They laugh - what would they want to change? So she and Dragon say thank you and goodbye, and as they turn towards home, the ribbon stretches and stretches and doesn't run out. Instead it becomes a bridge. Minli secures it with her chopsticks and then she and Dragon start across but unfortunately the bridge starts to rip so Dragon tells her to go on - just ask his question for him.
Minli makes it there, a china rabbit greets her, and they start towards the room. On the way, Minli notices a man trying to cut down a tree but all he's doing is loosing a storm of seeds into a pond that looks like it has stars in it, it's so deep and black. Minli realizes he's the one who supplies the seeds for the Village of the Moon Rain
China Rabbit tells her the story as they continue to the room - and there he is, sitting in a jumble of dolls, w the gdaughter's red threads tying them together. He has the Book of Fortune open and the borrowed line has been returned and "reunited" w the rest of the page, a faint scar where it was ripped. OMOTM tells her he only allows 1 question per 99 years, now, so Minli has an internal struggle, but in the end, the image of Dragon waiting patiently only to be shattered makes her decision - how do you give Dragon the ability to fly?
(changed some wording bc I'm running out of words > )
The OMOTM looked at her expectantly, his black eyes as unreadable as the night sky. Minli looked down into the open book on his lap and recognized the open page as the king's borrowed line. The words had changed again. As she looked, Minli realized for the first time, she could read the word. For the line was only made of one word, written over and over again - Thankfulness.
And suddenly Minli knew clearly what question to ask.
"There is a Dragon waiting at the bridge," she said, "Why can he not fly?". Back at the other end, there's Dragon - patient, loyal, strong - waiting as Minli climbs back down to him. So how do I fly, did you ask him? Dragon asks. Minli laughs, climbs on his back...and in no time at all they're on their way home, passing over VMR - don't stop here! Go home! they all say, so Dragon doesn't pause, and soon they're passing over CBM, fast asleep and bathed in bright moonlight. Passing over Buffalo Bill's hut, Minli doesn't see him - he's either sleeping or talking to the gdaughter.
Soon they pass the peach grove where the monkeys are still fighting and Dragons says, so what about you? Did you get your answer?
Minli is quiet. Dragon, dismayed, says ...you didn't ask? No, she didn't.
But it's ok, Minli says, I already know the answer.
Because she does - and so does her Ma.
And that would a sweet way to end the story, but it's not completely wrapped up just yet.
Speaking of Ma, right at that moment they come upon their beautifully ugly mountain. Home sweet home. But as they fly there, the Dragon comes upon...another Dragon. "Hello," she says and Minli thinks she looks like the goldfish she set free in the last river. Well what do you know. So Dragon is going into a tailspin bc he just saw another real live dragon and wants to get Minli home ASAP. So they land and he says, you go on, I want to stay here. Minli, worried, says you sure? and he says he has this weird feeling of coming home... because he was made from the inkstand which was made by the mountain which was made by Jade falling from the sky. So Minli, unaware, shrugs and asks if he wants the ball back. "No, that's ok, you keep it," he says (why would he want it back?) so she shakes her head because of his strange behavior and his overall light-headedness (npi) and she turns for home after saying goodbye to the distracted Dragon.
Slipping quietly into her house - "Shh, your parents are sleeping" - she's surprised to find a goldfish there. But she nods and goes into her bedroom, leaving her stuff on the table.
In the morning her parents are overjoyed to see Minli and laugh and talk and hug and cry. But as Ba goes into the other room to make tea, he notices something - a dragon's pearl! The one she pulled off of the dragon was an extremely rare pearl made by dragons, amazing.
As they're gaping at the dragon's pearl - shining luminously now that Ba has rubbed the dirt off - they hear the villagers. The mountain is blooming! Why? Because Dragon/inkstone/mountain rock has been reunited with Jade, the river, by coming home and meeting up with Aunt Jade who has finally swam in Jade River and turned into a dragon.
Two years later, goldfish man is back and hears the end to the puzzle: Ba, Ma, and Minli gave the king (MT's son) of CBM the dragon's pearl, and in return he gives a huge amount of farming equipment so they can make use of the fruits on Fruitful Mountain.
So Minli and her parents find their fortunes, as well as the village's, as two dragons together leap in the sky, where the mountain meets the moon.
If you're looking for Chinese fairytale style meets puzzle meets intricate plot and character with a meaningful message behind it, 1) that's very specific, you'll have better luck if you look at a broader topic and 2) that's this book. That still does absolutely no justice to it, but it is so good I'm not sure how to describe it.
Also the artwork is such intricate, colorful, BEAUTIFUL work. I've never seen a more well-designed book, and I love just holding it in my hands not only because the paper is thick, good quality paper, not only because the cover has such a nice matte feel, not only because the book itself is such a nice heavy weight, but because the artwork is wonderful. I want to frame some of the pictures and put them up, they're that good.
Every single detail is important, and every single character that comes into the story in a significant way is significant to the entire scheme of things. There are so many stories woven in, but the author does such a great job of keeping everything understandable. Not everything is chronological, but the further you read the better it gets - things don't have a connection until you get to the end and then everything clicks.
However. If you're one of the few people for whom the book didn't click the first time you read it and you finished the book a little bit confused, I've written it out in chronological order so that you can keep track of what went on at what time and why it was significant:
(MAJOR spoils ahead, please don't spoil it for yourself even if you don't think the book is going to be your cup of tea. I didn't think it was going to be mine, either, until I read it.)
It starts, first of all, with Jade Dragon having a fight with her children because she won't give humans water, so they turn themselves into water to save the humans. Overcome with grief and mad at herself for her stupidity and stubbornness, she falls from the sky and her broken heart turns into a mountain that is barren and dry, hoping to be reunited with her children one day. This mountain is fruitless so it's called Fruitless Mountain and the rumor is if she's reunited with one of her children, it will become fruitful.
While Jade is being turned into a mountain of grief, Wang Lee is a man who goes after his fortune wholeheartedly, leaving behind a little more of his life as he goes (first his parents, then brothers, then wife and children as he moves on to pursue ambitious success), eventually running into the Old Man of the Moon (OMOTM) who tries to teach him everything he needs to know but Wang Lee is still not satisfied so OMOTM takes him to a tree and tells him that as soon as he chops down that tree, he will have achieved the best of his life or something, so Wang Lee starts cutting...
Jump forward a few decades: a famous painter goes to Fruitless Mountain, gets a stone, and turns it into an inkstone to hold his paint. Then he goes back home and makes a painting of a dragon, but doesn't give it eyes. This painting is for Magistrate Tiger.
Magistrate Tiger has a run-in with OMOTM concerning his son's wife. Magistrate Tiger is mad, rips the paper, orders the girl to be killed. The ripped paper is the Borrowed Line (1 of 2).
He goes in search of a family's happiness by ordering them to give it to him. It gets lost, he gets furious. The family goes up the mountain to enjoy family time before the Magistrate Tiger has them executed (he's on his way), and then they, after loosing their kites (aka wishes) up to the moon, turn around and go back down, only this time the mountain has turned into the Mountain That Meets The Moon (which is important). So they come back to their house and the Magistrate, who's at the normal mountain they USED to live by, can't find them and is confused, embarrassed, and still furious. So he goes home. When he gets home, he hears that the 2yo got away. Sucks.
After a few years, Magistrate Tiger gets a painting as a gift to lower the taxes in the painter dude's village, but he sees that the dragon has no eyes and says he'll double taxes - but the servant brings a pot of ink and he decides to fix them himself. That makes the dragon come alive bc he was painted using the inkstone made from Fruitless Mountain, AND he's a dragon, which means this dragon, now alive, tho not Jade Dragon, is made from her - meaning he IS related to her, he comes alive and runs off, straight through the wall.
He stays in one location, watching a peach pit grow into a tree and then a grove. Then monkeys come and claim the territory so when he goes back for second helpings the monkeys decide to tie him up.
Since he's a painting - and a dragon to boot - he's basically immortal. Think of Prometheus without the pain.
While all that's going on, and the dragon is working on creating a river to drown himself in,
a fish is being born who wants to swim all the seas of the world in hopes to find Dragon's Gate. She starts on her journey around when the Dragon starts on his river.
So while Dragon's tied up in business, OMOTM's gdaughter goes back and forth, weaving string and then delivering it to him, for years.
Back home with the Magistrate Tiger, he has a son who grows up, gets married to a girl who covers up a scar she got from guys who tried to kill her when she was two. Thankfully she got adopted by the Emperor when her gmother died and that's how their marriage came about. So Magistrate Tiger's son grows up and rules the City of Bright Moonlight (CBM), with his dad living there. But everybody hates his dad bc he's wreaking havoc on everything so the son boots him out.
MT goes off nursing ideas of sweet revenge but dies before he gets a chance. As his spirit gets out of his old, dead body, it's so full of anger that it stays and turns into a big, green tiger. Thankfully he is reunited w the Big Happy Family who have a secret they still haven't shared. So he decides to ruin them by killing things w his poison claws.
While he's on a rampage, son rules wisely and well w the ripped paper the MT took from OMOTM. The lions outside the city got visited before the MT got kicked out, and they were also given a borrowed line from OMOTM, only it's one of the granddaughter's ribbons (OMOTM's gdaughter who delivers them to him). That ribbon is the Borrowed Line (2 of 2).
While all this is happening, Minli frees a fish who was captured by the goldfish seller. Fish, once freed, tells her that Fish has been trying to swim all the rivers and had one to go when she was captured. Then Minli bought her and put her in the last river, and now she can find Dragon's Gate - which is right by the mountain that the Jade Dragon died on/by/with/as. So the fish (Aunt Jin, remember that) thanks Minli by telling her how to reach OMOTM and goes on her way.
A little bit before Minli runs away, a buffalo boy from CBM goes with his buffalo and stumbles upon some sisters in the woods. He strikes up a friendship with one, the granddaughter of the OMOTM, and they meet regularly every time she's on her way to her gdad's.
Back to Minli, after freeing the fish, she runs away, meets up with Dragon, frees him but is stopped bc of monkeys. She traps the monkeys, they hit the road, and end up at CBM. She meets up with Buffalo Boy, spends the night in his hut while he goes and talks to gdaughter. She watches gdaughter give Buffalo Boy the instructions for how to see OMOTM but it doesn't click for Minli yet that gdaughter is related to OMOTM. Next morning, she sees the king and runs after him, gets into the palace, and starts talking to the king. They have dinner together and talk abt the Borrowed Line that he has thanks to MT.
Speaking of MT, he's busy demanding a child from Big Happy Family for a month of peace. The family has named their village the Village of the Moon Rain (VMR), and have found a recipe of tea that heals the poison from MT, thanks to Wang Lee, who's tryna chop down the tree in the sky. Since they live on the OMOTM's mountain, Wang Lee's efforts make it rain on them every night. While they're dealing with MT, Minli is discussing the Borrowed Line (1/2) with MT's son who hands it over after reading it, bc it tells him to (you can only read the line in the moonlight which is why they call it the City of Bright Moonlight). So she leaves, triumphant, and runs into Dragon right outside the gate.
Dragon's been busy while she's gone, striking up a convo w the stone lions guarding the city who give him a ribbon - the Borrowed Line, he assumes, bc it was given by OMOTM to keep the city together. Thankfully it's still together, so they give him the Line (2/2). Dragon waits for Minli, they swap stories and head over to where the Mountain meets the moon, per gdaughter's instructions.
While traveling, they meet a fish who asks if Dragon is her aunt Jin. They say no and keep going, after Minli notices how familiar that fish looked.
During their travel, Da-A-Fu (twins from Big Happy Family) hatch a plan to get the Tiger out of their hair.
Meanwhile, Ma and Ba have seen the light and decide to wait for her at home. All the while, Ma is feeling worse and worse to about driving her daughter to discontentment and a desire to pursue better things. Unlike MT, Ma realizes that always wanting more isn't really everything in life - family is better. Because if you have family, you can help each other no matter what.
As she's coming to realize the error of her ways, Minli and Dragon arrive at the mountain and spend the night in a cave but in the morning, Minli walks out and meets the green tiger and yells, Dragon comes out and roars at the tiger - he is much bigger but MT swipes at Dragon and runs off. Relieved, Minli and Dragon go back to the cave - Dragon doesn't feel good and is bleeding, so Minli says they'll rest and he drops off to sleep p quickly while she stays up worrying.
Meanwhile Da-A-Fu are tracking down MT. The girl twin, A-Fu, takes part of the boy twin, Da-Fu's, pantleg, and while he hides behind a rock, girl walks up the trail in search of the MT.
In the cave, Minli is worried about Dragon, his breathing raspy and uneven. The MT's scratches have swollen, turned black, and Dragon won't wake up when Minli calls his name. So she tells him she's going to get help and runs off. As she's going in search of the mountain, A-Fu comes up the mountain.
Minli runs into Da-Fu, literally, and he tells her to be quiet and watch. A-Fu comes up to the Tiger and explains there is supposed to have been two offerings but a younger tiger ate her bro (sniff sniff) - cue pantleg. MT is curious - what tiger? A-Fu continues. This young tiger claimed to be stronger than MT who is his dad. Young Tiger claims MT is a coward, can't face his son. MT is mad. A-Fu continues. If MT would like to know where he is, she can show him. She leads him to a well, he sees himself and roars. The reflection does the same, the echoes of the mountain help the effects, and A-Fu tells him his son (king of the CBM) is mocking him. Well enough is enough so MT jumps in and that's the end of that.
Da-Fu comes out and they celebrate and then Minli says her friend is hurt by MT, and could they help.
Around this time is when Aunt Jin finds the gate.
They get to VMR, she sees that there are a lot of trees, the twins are cheered bc they defeated MT, and also scolded because they did it alone, and then they introduce Minli and go to the grandpa who can help.
So they head back to the cave w the gdad and are surprised when her friend turns out to be a dragon. Gdad gives him tea and bathes his arm in it. Tea? Yes - seeds that fall from the sky every night which, once planted, are trees whose blossoms help the sickness. So, despite being moved to the mountain after being pursued for their happiness by the MT, they still have good things even if they live on rocky soil and are pursued. Dragon gets better and they go back to the village.
Once Dragon is well, the villagers give her a jacket as a goobye present as she and Dragon (with the escort of Da-A-Fu) head for the top of the mountain and, ultimately, home.
Finally they arrive and Minli and Dragon pull out the paper and ribbon. How to get across the gap to the mountain? Well, Da-A-Fu suggest, do it the way their ancestors got their wishes across to the OMOTM. So Minli ties the ribbon to the paper - the two borrowed liness - and throws it in the air, assuming she'd just let go when the ribbon ran out. Then Minli asks her escorts, Da-A-Fu, if there is anything they want asked so they can change their luck? They laugh - what would they want to change? So she and Dragon say thank you and goodbye, and as they turn towards home, the ribbon stretches and stretches and doesn't run out. Instead it becomes a bridge. Minli secures it with her chopsticks and then she and Dragon start across but unfortunately the bridge starts to rip so Dragon tells her to go on - just ask his question for him.
Minli makes it there, a china rabbit greets her, and they start towards the room. On the way, Minli notices a man trying to cut down a tree but all he's doing is loosing a storm of seeds into a pond that looks like it has stars in it, it's so deep and black. Minli realizes he's the one who supplies the seeds for the Village of the Moon Rain
China Rabbit tells her the story as they continue to the room - and there he is, sitting in a jumble of dolls, w the gdaughter's red threads tying them together. He has the Book of Fortune open and the borrowed line has been returned and "reunited" w the rest of the page, a faint scar where it was ripped. OMOTM tells her he only allows 1 question per 99 years, now, so Minli has an internal struggle, but in the end, the image of Dragon waiting patiently only to be shattered makes her decision - how do you give Dragon the ability to fly?
(changed some wording bc I'm running out of words > )
Spoiler
But when Minli thought about Dragon, waiting for her patiently, it was as if she had been struck. Images of the Dragon rained upon her - their laughter as they passed the monkeys, his awkward struggles walking in the woods, his echoing roar as he flung the Green Tiger into the air, the kind hand he put on her shoulder when she cried, and the hopeful look in his eyes as she left. Dragon is my friend, Minli said to herself, What should I do?The OMOTM looked at her expectantly, his black eyes as unreadable as the night sky. Minli looked down into the open book on his lap and recognized the open page as the king's borrowed line. The words had changed again. As she looked, Minli realized for the first time, she could read the word. For the line was only made of one word, written over and over again - Thankfulness.
And suddenly Minli knew clearly what question to ask.
"There is a Dragon waiting at the bridge," she said, "Why can he not fly?"
Spoiler
yanks off the golden ball on top of his head. He says ouch but he feels much lighter andSoon they pass the peach grove where the monkeys are still fighting and Dragons says, so what about you? Did you get your answer?
Minli is quiet. Dragon, dismayed, says ...you didn't ask? No, she didn't.
But it's ok, Minli says, I already know the answer.
Because she does - and so does her Ma.
And that would a sweet way to end the story, but it's not completely wrapped up just yet.
Speaking of Ma, right at that moment they come upon their beautifully ugly mountain. Home sweet home. But as they fly there, the Dragon comes upon...another Dragon. "Hello," she says and Minli thinks she looks like the goldfish she set free in the last river. Well what do you know. So Dragon is going into a tailspin bc he just saw another real live dragon and wants to get Minli home ASAP. So they land and he says, you go on, I want to stay here. Minli, worried, says you sure? and he says he has this weird feeling of coming home... because he was made from the inkstand which was made by the mountain which was made by Jade falling from the sky. So Minli, unaware, shrugs and asks if he wants the ball back. "No, that's ok, you keep it," he says (why would he want it back?) so she shakes her head because of his strange behavior and his overall light-headedness (npi) and she turns for home after saying goodbye to the distracted Dragon.
Slipping quietly into her house - "Shh, your parents are sleeping" - she's surprised to find a goldfish there. But she nods and goes into her bedroom, leaving her stuff on the table.
In the morning her parents are overjoyed to see Minli and laugh and talk and hug and cry. But as Ba goes into the other room to make tea, he notices something - a dragon's pearl! The one she pulled off of the dragon was an extremely rare pearl made by dragons, amazing.
As they're gaping at the dragon's pearl - shining luminously now that Ba has rubbed the dirt off - they hear the villagers. The mountain is blooming! Why? Because Dragon/inkstone/mountain rock has been reunited with Jade, the river, by coming home and meeting up with Aunt Jade who has finally swam in Jade River and turned into a dragon.
Two years later, goldfish man is back and hears the end to the puzzle: Ba, Ma, and Minli gave the king (MT's son) of CBM the dragon's pearl, and in return he gives a huge amount of farming equipment so they can make use of the fruits on Fruitful Mountain.
So Minli and her parents find their fortunes, as well as the village's, as two dragons together leap in the sky, where the mountain meets the moon.
Grace Lin weaves together several lovely stories in this fantasy/legend about a young girl who goes off to change her family's fortune. The ending message that true happiness comes from gratitude doesn't feel didactic, just the "of course" that unfolds with the story. Really lovely and well-done.
Orry and I read this aloud together and we loved it. Orry says this book was amazing. It has so much structure to the book and it was very well made. We liked how Minli left to seek her fortune but met a dragon who could not fly and they had many adventures and heard many stories. Minli surprises herself when she finally meets the Old Man in the Moon but everything works out in her favor because she has learned the lesson of thankfulness. There are many stories within the story and everything connects. Orry was very good at realizing when the stories were connected to parts of Minli’s adventure. This book is based on Grace Lin’s memories of Chinese folktales and her travels in China. Fascinating and so well done. The art is wonderful.
Grace Lin weaves in the story of Min Li and her family with traditional Chinese folklore beautifully. A fantasy novel that is rich with imagery, Where The Mountain Meets the Moon is suitable for Year 4 and up. The book which follows one main plot line contains short stories within it that connect beautifully to the overarching plot allowing students to see how authors use plot devices to drive the story further. Inspired by her Chinese heritage WTMMTM is a celebration of stories that Lin grew up hearing and places that Lin visited. At the back of the book in an author's note that includes illustrations and examples of how Lin weaved these parts of her life into the story.
Beautiful story, beautiful illustrations. Minli lives with her family in the shadow of Fruitless Mountain, barely getting by. She decides to leave on a quest, to go find the Man in the Moon and change her fortune. Along the way, she meets a talking goldfish, a dragon, an evil green tiger, and many kind folks who offer her assistance.
this is a solid story that I will purchase for school. Like the folktales interwoven with the narrative. Just a little long.