where the mountain meets the moon by grace lin

Trying to come to terms with her own identity, she searched for and treasured books that featured Asian American characters, even when their portrayal was oversimplified or stereotyped. In a poignant essay entitled “Why Couldn’t Snow White Be Chinese?” Lin discusses her sense of otherness and states that as a child, she found her dual identity to be a burden. Thus she spent much of her childhood trying to ignore her Asian heritage in order to fit in better with her peers. For years, she and her siblings were the only Asian American children in her school and she was the only one in her class. The child of immigrants from Taiwan, Grace Lin was born in the United States in 1974 and grew up in New York State. In the final activity and summative assessment, students plan and then write a personal narrative about a challenge they have overcome, using vivid descriptions of persons and places Guiding Questions

As an optional activity, they may make a bulletin board or wall display that shows the embedded stories within the frame of the main narrative. After learning about the concept of the frame story, pairs of students take one of the folktales to analyze and then illustrate a key scene from it. The second part of the lesson has students return to the book to explore how the folktales enhance Minli’s story. In the first part of the lesson, students read each of the embedded folktales as they cover the main narrative. They identify the friends and mentors who helped her, and the character traits that led to her success. They keep journals to record the challenges Minli faced, and how she met the challenges.

It blends an adventure narrative with a female hero, a collection of traditional and invented folktales, and an array of Chinese-style paintings and woodcuts into an appealing and challenging reading experience.Īfter a brief discussion of types of challenges-physical, emotional, economic, etc.-students read the entire book, focusing on the main narrative. This book, a celebration of the importance of imagination and story, introduces upper elementary students to Chinese culture and tradition. ―Grace Lin, Where the Mountain Meets the Moonĭespite her mother’s disapproval of stories and dreaming, Minli gathers her courage, her resourcefulness, and her openness to new people and places, to take a remarkable journey to accomplish the impossible. 'Bringing fortune to our house! Making Fruitless Mountain bloom! You’re always wishing to do impossible things! Stop believing stories and stop wasting your time.'

Where the mountain meets the moon by grace lin