Where the Mountain Meets the Moon
2009
- massachusetts book award winner
- parents' choice award winner
- mythopeic fantasy award for children's literature
- newbery honor book
- nyt:paperback_books=2011-05-14
- juvenile fiction
- dragons
- fairy tales
- fiction
- moon
The story
Where the Mountain Meets the Moon is a fantasy-adventure children's novel inspired by Chinese folklore. It was written and illustrated by Grace Lin and published in 2009. The novel received a 2010 Newbery Honor and the 2010 Mythopoeic Fantasy Award for Children's Literature.
What it’s like
Warm, gentle and quietly luminous, with the feel of a folktale told aloud at bedtime. The prose is clear and unhurried, full of small domestic and natural details: a village of rice fields and mountain paths, paper lanterns, the scent of tea and steamed buns, moonlight that seems to pool on the page. Chapters are short and episodic, moving in a steady, rhythmic way that suits reading aloud, and the pen-and-ink interludes (Lin's own illustrations, rendered in soft, delicate line) add a hand-made texture that feels like a well-loved picture book stretched into a novel. The mood is wonder tinged with homesickness and longing, the emotional register of a child learning that courage can be quiet and kindness can travel far. Its people's arcs follow a restless, curious girl gradually finding her place among friends, family and the wider world. Intensity is very low: the peril is mild and fairy-tale in scale, with no gore, no sexual content, and only brief moments of fear that resolve softly. Ideal for a rainy-afternoon read, a family read-aloud, or anyone wanting a gentle, mythic escape with a comforting glow.
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