Book #34

A young girl named Minli lives with her Ma and Ba in a poor village at the bottom of Fruitless Mountain.  Ma thinks their family has poor fortune.  They work all day in the rice fields and come home to a tiny house to eat a bowl of rice.  Ba tells stories and Ma frowns.  One day Minli buys a gold fish and everything changes. 

Minli begins an adventure to change her fortune.  Along the way she makes a friend, listens to stories, meets interesting people, learns the true meaning of happiness, understands what fortune is, and reunites a family.  Her parents learn to trust Minli, and they also discover that they had fortune all along. 

The kids and I read "Where the Mountain Meets the Moon" by Grace Lin as part of our kid summer book club.  We had a great discussion--each of the kids asking questions or sharing their favorite part of the book.  There was a lot of thinking involved.  After the discussion we played a game.  I was lucky to find this book.  We all enjoyed it and learned a lot.