Grace Lin’s Where the Mountain Meets the Moon is a beautiful book.
After a reading string of well-written, compelling but very sad stories about refugees (The Road from Home, The Day of the Pelican, The Endless Steppe), my children requested “something NOT sad.” Where the Mountain Meets the Moon fit that bill.
Minli, a young Chinese girl in a rural farming village, lives with her father (a story telling farmer) and mother (who doesn’t appreciate stories). When Minli sees an opportunity to change her fortune, she takes it, leaving her village to find the Old Man on the Moon.
Minli encounters many story tellers, including a stone lion, an incognito king, and an imprisoned dragon. Their stories weave beautifully into a powerful narrative about what fortune ultimately means.
It’s labeled for Grades 3-6 but made a lovely family read aloud, which everyone loved. Highly recommended.
Learning As We Go 