Where The Mountain Meets The Moon

Where the Mountain Meets the Moon by Grace Lin is a middle grade fantasy fiction novel that takes inspiration from Chinese folklore and details the journey of a young girl, Minli, as she embarks on a hero's quest to improve her family’s circumstances. Where the Mountain Meets the Moon became a New York Times bestseller and received a Newbery Honor Award and the 2010 Mythopoeic Fantasy Award for Children’s Literature. Lin penned a companion book in 2014 called Starry River of the Sky and a sequel in 2016 called When the Sea Turns to Silver. This SuperSummary guide references the 278-page paperback first edition of the novel, which Little, Brown and Company published in 2009.

Where the Mountain Meets the Moon unfolds through a third person omniscient point of view that largely follows its protagonist, Minli. Historical and fantastical stories that Minli is hearing in “real time,” intersperse the main narrative. Storytelling, as a result, becomes a major motif and important plot device. The novel relies on folk tales, magical events, god-like intervention, rich imagery, and simple language to tell the story of a very ordinary girl with an age-old problem.