If you like Chinese folktales, you will love this book. I'm not a huge fan of fables and folklore, but this one is so well told, that it will top my recommendation list this year.
Minli, a young girl who lives with her parents in the shadow of Fruitless Mountain, works hard in the rice fields each day. Her parents work even harder, but they barely have enough food to feed themselves. To distract them from their poverty, Minli's father spends much of their spare time in the evenings telling Minli stories about the Old Man of the Moon who holds everyone's destiny, the Jade Dragon that keeps the mountain from growing food, and the mean, greedy Magistrate Tiger.
One day, Minli meets a mysterious goldish salesman who swears his fish will bring people good luck. Hoping to save her parents from hard work and poverty, Minli spends one of her last two coins on a goldfish. What results is a magical journey that takes Minli up to the top of Neverending Mountain, where she hopes to meet the Old Man of the Moon, the only one with the power to change her fortune.
I really liked how the author Grace Lin wove various folk tales into her story, first through the character of Minli's father and then through other wonderful characters that Minli meets along the way. Not only are the individual stories entertaining, but they also directly tie into the way Minli solves her own dilemma. In other words, there's a big payoff at the end.
An entertaining and heartwarming book, I will definitely recommend it to my sixth graders next year, but I think anyone who enjoys a lively folktale will want to pick this one up.
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