Where the Mountain Meets the Moon
Dorothy 鈥� with her gingham dress, silver shoes, and little dog 鈥� may be the most instantly recognizable heroine in classic American literature. It turns out you can take all that away from her, whirl her away to ancient China, and never mistake her for a minute, as Grace Lin proves in her lovely new book, Where the Mountain Meets the Moon.
Nothing will grow on Fruitless Mountain 鈥� supposedly the broken heart of a dragon 鈥� and the people stuck farming it are all weary and covered with mud. Except for a little girl named Minli, who 鈥渨as not brown and dull like the rest of the village.鈥�
Unlike Dorothy, the source of Minli鈥檚 sparkle isn鈥檛 a dog; it鈥檚 her father鈥檚 stories, which Ba tells her every night after the family eats their dinner of plain rice. While his tales of the Old Man of the Moon, Never-Ending Mountain, and greedy Magistrate Tiger delight Minli, her mother is weary of fairy tales. 鈥淥ur house is bare and our rice hardly fills our bowls, but we have plenty of stories.鈥� Ma sighed again. 鈥淲hat a poor fortune we have!鈥�
Readers might disagree, as Lin (鈥淵ear of the Dog鈥�) weaves together echoes of 鈥淭he Wizard of Oz鈥� with classic Chinese folk stories to create a layered tale that鈥檚 a pleasure to read aloud. (Plus, she gets bonus points for including a version of 鈥淭he Magic Pear Tree,鈥� one of my favorites growing up.) Lin鈥檚 own full-color illustrations accompany the tales, and it鈥檚 a tossup as to which is more elegant 鈥� the artwork or the writing.
Being a plucky young heroine, Minli naturally sets off to see the Wizard 鈥� er, excuse me, the Old Man of the Moon 鈥� to learn how to change her family鈥檚 fortune. We are definitely not in Kansas anymore. There are no scarecrows or tin woodmen 鈥� instead, Minli encounters a talking goldfish, a boy, and a dragon who can鈥檛 fly. The cowardly lion doesn鈥檛 appear; instead, there鈥檚 a ghostly green tiger. There are monkeys, but I鈥檓 happy to report that they don鈥檛 fly.
鈥淲here the Mountain Meets the Moon鈥� cuts between Minli鈥檚 journey to her parents waiting desperately back home. Ma blames Ba for filling Minli鈥檚 head with nonsense. 鈥淢aking her believe she could change our miserable fortune with an impossible story! Ridiculous!鈥�
鈥淵es,鈥� Ba said sadly, 鈥渋t is impossible. But it is not ridiculous.鈥�
In between fairy tales, Lin intersperses bits of wisdom about family, faith, and contentment 鈥� and the insidiousness of bitterness and want.
The finale has less poignancy than L. Frank Baum鈥檚 classic American tale. But by the end, Minli isn鈥檛 the only one who learns that there鈥檚 no place like home.
Yvonne Zipp regularly reviews fiction for the Monitor. She blogs at .
