Where the Mountain Meets the Moon by Grace Lin

Lin, Grace. Where the mountain meets the moon . New York: Little, Brown and Co., 2009. Print.

Newbery Honor Book, Teacher's Choice 2011

AGES: Scholastic Grade Level Equivalent 5.4, 820L

SUMMARY:
In Where the Mountain Meets the Moon, Grace Lin is able to create a story of great adventure. With the use of Chinese folktales she is able to add new dimension to a traditional plot. Minli listens to this folktales and believes everything she hears and goes on an adventure to meet the Old Man of the moon, similar to The Wizard of Oz, and meets tons of interesting characters on the way, for example, a dragon and a fish. This novel is sure to spark an interest in any young reader due to the great amount of adventure and fantasy. 

VOCABULARY:
indignant, grueling, magistrate, infuriated, clamoring, exhaustion, emissary, mysterious, aglow, ignorant, imperial, decipher, ancestors

TEACHING STRATEGIES: (small group instruction)
Before: discuss Chinese folktales and why they were important to Chinese culture/ Read The Wizard of Oz to then compare with Where the Mountain Meets the Moon after reading

During: Keep track of characters in adventure, character map/ note the similarities that remind them of The Wizard of Oz

After: Act out the folktales/ Write own folktale based off the ones presented in the novel/ compare and contrast novel to The Wizard of Oz with either discussion or chart

ONLINE RESOURCES:
http://www.gracelin.com/content.php?page=wherethemountainmeetsthemoon- tv interview with Grace Lin, activities and reviews for the novel, background about the book
http://www.bookrags.com/lessonplan/where-the-mountain-meets-the-moon/- Lesson plans and activities for the novel
http://learningtogive.org/lessons/unit226/lesson5.html- lesson plan related to teaching about folktales, could take ideas or activities from lesson