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.
