The book is about a young girl named Minli who is a poor farm girl in rural, desolate village in China. Her family doesn't have very much, and after hearing stories from her father about a powerful spirit called the Old Man of the Moon who can grant wishes and change fate, she sets out to go find him to change her family's poor fortune. The story chronicles her adventure as she meets many people - as well as magical creatures, like dragons, - on her way to the Old Man's home. She eventually does find the Old Man, but rather than ask for her family to become rich, she realizes that her family already has what it needs, and asks instead why her dragon friend cannot fly. Through his words she is able to help the dragon learn to fly. As thanks he gives her a pearl - which makes her family fortunate in the end - and he returns to his dragon ancestors, finally lifting the curse of poor weather that plagued her village. Her family and the other villagers now live happily with more crops and prosperity and all is well.
Though fantasy isn't typically my go-to genre, I liked the book. I'll admit it was a bit slow-paced at times, and I thought the multiple cut ins of various people telling Minli stories got a little grating, but for the most part I liked it. However, one thing I realized while I was reading the book, is that while parts of it were a little slow paced or predictable for my taste, I probably would have adored this book as a child. I liked fantasy books more when I was a little kid; especially stories like this where it seemed feasible that someone like me could go on adventure. (I remember reading Lord of the Rings as a little kid... and while it was realistic what with them constantly being injured, not knowing where they were going to stay for the night, and often being on the brink of starvation it made the possibility of an adventure seem frightening and dire rather than fun.) So reading children's media with themes of adventure was enticing to me, because I could see myself going on them. Along with that, who Minli was definitely would have appealed to me as a kid. While I am Japanese and not Chinese, these cultures still share many similarities, more so than with typical white culture. So reading about Minli's lifestyle and family was relatable to me, more relatable than most ye olden fantasies that take place in European villages and cultures. My family would eat rice with dinner multiple times a week, we use chopsticks and we do own some traditional ceramic bowls, as well. My sister, my mother and I all have dark hair and eyes like Minli, I owned some kimonos while growing up that looked sort of similar to what Minli and her family wore, and even her name, Minli, was more similar to my middle name, Michiko, than any other name I have read in western fiction as a child due to its over saturation of white characters. So I feel like, had I read this when I was in grade/middle school, I probably would have loved it. And it would have felt more accessible to me than Lord of the Rings or even more child-aimed fantasies that I enjoyed like Peter and the Star Catcher, because I would probably be able to see myself as the characters in question, rather than sitting there and thinking well maybe that could be me, if I were a white girl.
The major themes in this story are predominately family, tradition and faith. Minli sets out on her adventure out of love for her family, to turn their fortune around and make them happy. The story often cuts back to her parents point of views as well, as they are desperately searching and waiting for their daughter to come home. Along with that, the dragon she befriends winds up saving her whole village by returning to his ancient family on the decrepit mountain that overlooks her village. Tradition also plays a huge role in the narrative - mostly in the vein of storytelling. The whole narrative relies heavily on stories. Minli only knows of the Old Man of the Moon through a story her father tells her. And the crisis with the mountain is only solved because of an old story. While I am not Chinese and therefore do not know much of traditional Chinese stories, I know from reading up about this book that the stories told in the story are based off of real Chinese legends, and that stems into this theme of tradition. And finally, the story revolves around faith. We learn that in one of the old legends, faith is what kept the happiest family on Earth so happy, and it is faith that kept Minli's parents going when they were scared for their daughter's well-being, and it was faith that Minli had to rely on her love for her dragon friend to know that the right thing to do was ask the Old Man about her dragon friend rather than her own fortune.
I think the book was telling us that family is important, as is love and believing in traditions and having faith in one another. Most of this I outlined in the last paragraph where I talked about themes. However, I think there is more to it than just what we see on the surface level. And by that I mean I think this story is telling us even more simply by who and what it's about. Had this story been written by a white author about white characters in a white country, it frankly wouldn't be that notable. Not that this story isn't good, but it's just a matter of fact that there are several fantastical adventure stories about children setting off on a great journey to find or do something. However, the fact that this story was written by a Chinese American woman about a Chinese girl in China makes it far more significant. During her Ted Talk, when she referred to her story and to Minli as "Chinese Wizard of Oz" and "Chinese Dorothy" respectively, it all made sense to me. This story, more than just having its in-text themes of love and family and tradition, also seemed to be saying that anyone can go on some fantastical adventure. Adventure and fantasy isn't localized only to Europe and white children. Children of all races and backgrounds can be the hero of their own fantasy... we just need to have their stories about them published.
While the illustrations in this story weren't the forefront of the novel, I really liked them anyways. Grace Lin clearly used her cultural background as an inspiration for the illustrations - the characters were drawn in a traditional, simplistic Chinese style that looks as if it was made of ink and silk. Her lack of detail helped examplify this - while sometimes a lot of detail can be a good thing, I think using minimal details for the character's designs (such as having Minli's hair be jet black with little details, etc.) made the style resemble that of ancient Chinese art pieces. Not to say that her art was plain. She paid close attention to backgrounds - the cover alone is covered in bright, vibrant colors, the sky filled with blossoming clouds and colored with bright spirals and swirls. Adding details like this while keeping the characters simplistic really emphasized its traditional Chinese style. This story could have been portrayed successfully even if it had been drawn in a more American cartoony style, but because the style was imitating ancient Chinese prints, it really did make the book seem like it may be an old fable rather than a contemporary story.
I think this book is important to share with children because, as Lin brought up in her Ted Talk, it is both a window for white kids who grew up with nothing but stories about themselves, as well as it is a mirror for marginalized children who have never seen themselves in a book before. While of course this story is exclusively Chinese and therefore isn't representative of every child in a typical classroom, it is still incredibly important. I grew up with predominately white stories. There were a couple stories with African American characters in grade and middle school, but aside from those rare instances, pretty much everything we were required to read was white. I didn't read a story with a Latin American protagonist until high school, and I have yet to ever have a required novel in which the protagonist is Asian or Native American. And even then, the few stories I've read with black and Latin American protagonists relied heavily on their race. Most stories about black people I've read dealt with the subject of slavery and racism in America; same goes with the one Latin American book I read. And while it's important to learn of these subjects, it's depressing because it feels as if marginalized characters aren't allowed to exist unless they're that - marginalized. Their stories are always about their race. It's horrible feeling to sit in a classroom and read story after story about how white people get to be wizards and heroes and scientists and princesses and so on and so forth while you either don't get to exist at all, or the few characters that are like you exist in a state of constant oppression where they struggle to survive until some kind-hearted white person decides to convince other white people to believe in their humanity. It's important for children of color - and especially white children - to learn of the histories of oppression and racism, but that should be in history classes, especially in the realm of grade school. When it comes to literature, children of color should be able to read stories about themselves, where they see characters of their races being heroes and princesses and wizards and scientists and so on. And this story, Where the Mountain Meets the Moon, is a great example of a story like that. Even though I am Japanese, I would have loved this story as a child. I would've loved to be able to see a hero who looks even remotely like me when I was growing up. And I sincerely hope that this book inspires other writers of other cultures to write stories that are, for lack of a better word, stereotypical hero stories; but the hero gets to be anything but white and take place anywhere but Europe.
