Where the Mountain Meets the Moon ~ by Grace Lin, 2009

Grace Lin wrote and illustrated this book, so I'm going to give you some of both.  First, a taste of Grace Lin's writing:

"Every night the stars filled the sky like snowflakes falling on black stone and then melted away as the sun mounted" (p. 256).

China becomes a magical place as we follow a girl named Minli on a journey to change her family's fortune.  The opening words of the book show us an unappealing place.

"Far away from here, following the Jade River, there was once a black mountain that cut into the sky like a jagged piece of rough metal.  The villagers called it Fruitless Mountain because nothing grew on it and birds and animals did not rest there.  Crowded in the corner of where Fruitless Mountain and the Jade River met was a village that was a shade of faded brown.  This was because the land around the village was hard and poor" (p. 1).

Minli and her family are introduced on the next page.

"One of the houses in his village was so small that its wood boards, held together by the roof, made one think of a bunch of matches tied with a piece of twine.  Inside, there was barely enough room for three people to sit around the table -- which was lucky because only three people lived there.  One of them was a young girl called Minli" (p. 2).

And now I'll share a taste of the visual art Grace Lin gives us.  I discovered this sequence of images -- seeing the place become the sketch and then, when painted, the final illustration of the imperial garden (p. 134) -- at the Paper Tiger Blog.  There you can read an interview with Grace Lin, who shared her artistic process.

Grace Lin included stories within the bigger story. These are not chapters, but stories being told by someone Minli meets:

The Story of Fruitless Mountain (p. 4)
The Story of the Old Man of the Moon (p. 18)
The Story of the Dragon (p. 51)
The Story of the Goldfish Man (p. 62)
The Story of the Paper of Happiness (p. 81)
The Story of the Dragon Gate (p. 92)
The Story of the Buffalo Boy's Friend (p. 105)
The Unknown Part of the Story of the Old Man of the Moon (p. 136)
A String of Destiny (p. 147)
The Story the Girl Told the Green Tiger (p. 169)
The Story of the Village of the Moon Rain (p. 184)
The Story of the Green Tiger and the Tea (p. 195)
The Story of Da-A-Fu's Ancestors (p. 210)

(Da-Fu and A-Fu are twins; together they are called Da-A-Fu, much as we might say "the twins.")

The Story of the Dragon's Pearl (p. 225)
The Story of Wu Kang (p. 239)
The Story That Ma Told (p. 252)

My favorite picture (found on p. 279) is shown below.  Isn't it beautiful? You'll have to read the book to know what it depicts. My rating of the book is 9 of 10.

Readathon ~ second half

Mini-challenges and updates for the second half of the 24-hour Read-a-Thon will go here.  My original updates post got mighty long!   Maybe, since it's gotten dark now on my side of the planet, I won't be taking as many photos with my cell phone.  But I like adding pictures!  As before, I'll put the latest update or mini-challenge at the top.  After "its hour" has passed, I'll move it to the bottom in chronological order.

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Hour 13 mini-challenge (Romancing Your Friendship, 8:00 p.m.)
"So you know how there are those books out there where ... a boy and a girl are friends ... only to find out at the end they have loved each other the whole time and its just soooooo amazingly beautiful.  Well, that's the basis for this challenge.  I want you to pick out your favorite book or series where there is a boy/girl, boy/boy, girl/girl couple that fall in love."

Oh, this is soooooo not me!  I think I'll keep reading.

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Hour 14 (9:00 p.m.)

I'm a winner!  "We also have Winners to Announce for the Intro Meme!  Each of the following get their choice of a book prize pack, and the first winner ALSO gets the chocolate monkey:  Bonnie Jacobs (Bonnie’s Books), Michelle at Literaily Speaking, The 1st Daughter from There’s a Book, Fyrefly from Fyrefly’s Book Blog, and Shauna- Reading and Ruminations."

I went back to the first hour to see what I won and found this:  "We’ll draw 5 winners randomly. Each winner gets a book prize pack, and the first winner will also get the chocolate monkey you see on the right. Again, it’s tradition!"  I'm first?  I get the chocolate monkey?  I remember when Dewey raved about the first chocolate monkey she offered.

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Hour 15 (10:00 p.m.)

I'm looking over the book sets and trying to decide which one I'd like to have for my win (see Hour 14).  This is the one I picked from the page of prizes:

Erica Barmash at Harper Perennial (publicist):  Lovers of Fiction Young and Old Prize Pack (one copy each of Shelf Discovery and The Cougar Club)

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Hour 16 mini-challenge (Title Teasers, 11:00 p.m.)
"The goal of this challenge is to complete some book titles.  I am going to give you a list of 20 titles, leaving out some of the words.  Your challenge, should you choose to accept it, is to complete the title."

1. The Dark _____  (The Dark Divine by Bree Despain)
2. An _____  _____ Girl  (An Irish Country Girl by Patrick Taylor)
3. The Lost _____ of _____ May _____  (The Lost Summer of Louisa May Alcott by Kelly O'Connor McNees)
4. Necessary _____  (Necessary Heartbreak by M. J. Sullivan)
5. She's So _____ to _____  (She's So Dead to Us by Kieran Scott,)
6. _____ Over Toccoa  (Fireworks Over Toccoa by Jeffrey Stepakoff)
7. _____ Dead  (Beautiful Dead by Eden Maguire)
8. Scones & _____  (Scones and Sensibility by Lindsay Eland)
9. All _____ Things  (All Unquiet Things by Anna Jarzab)
10. Beautiful _____  (Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl)
11. _____ to Dream  (Perchance to Dream by Lisa Mantchev)
12. The _____-_____ Waves  (The Dead-Tossed Waves by Carrie Ryan)
13. I Kissed a _____ and I _____ It  (I Kissed a Zombie, and I Liked It by Adam Selzer)
14. Prophecy of the _____  (Prophecy of the Sisters by Michelle Zink)
15. Very _____ (Very LeFreak by Rachel Cohn)
16. The Girl Who _____ from the _____  (The Girl Who Fell From the Sky by Heidi W. Durrow)
17. Marriage and Other _____ of _____  (Marriage and Other Acts of Charity by Kate Braestrup)
18. Making _____  (Making Toast by Roger Rosenblatt)
19. _____ Cat  (White Cat by Holly Black)
20. Letters to My _____  (Letters to My Father by O. Raye Adkins)

If I should happen to win, I would choose The Girl Who Fell From the Sky by Heidi W. Durrow.

(While trying to post this hour's mini-challenge, my computer program -- Firefox -- has crashed FOUR TIMES, making me lose the whole list TWICE.  I hope I'm not too late to enter the contest by the time I get this posted!  And I hope I didn't mix up any titles that I had so carefully done before, having found them all on her blog.)

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Hour 17 (12:00 midnight) is known as Dewey’s Hour

"As you have probably noticed this read-a-thon is called Dewey’s Read-A-Thon, that is because it is in memory of Dewey - she was the instigator of this insanely cool event! Some of you ‘knew’ her and did a Read-A-Thon or two with her as your host. If you never got the chance, let me tell you - she was fab. For this hour we’d like you to leave a comment on this post telling us something you enjoyed about Dewey or remember her fondly for or just something sweet."

Dewey drew this picture for me.

Click this link to my post about this cat Dewey drew, and be sure to read the comments because Dewey and I had a conversation about cats where she said, "My cat says it's too hot out to cuddle, and she probably won't get into my lap again until at least November."  That would be November 2008, when Dewey died.

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Hour 24 ~ I'm a WINNER in the RIF mini-challenge (see Hour 10 in the earlier Updates post)

Joy Renee just notified me (see comments below) that I'm a winner in her mini-challenge.  Wow!  Thanks!

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Hour 24 (End of Event Meme, 7:00 a.m.)
This will have to wait until I am thinking.  After posting about Dewey (Hour 17), I went to bed to read and sleep.  I need to shower now and go teach a class, so I'll answer the rest of these questions when I get home.

1. Which hour was most daunting for you?

Hour 16 when my computer kept crashing, maybe because it had been on most of the day?  I wasted a lot of time doing and re-doing that hour's mini-challenge.

2. Could you list a few high-interest books that you think could keep a Reader engaged for next year?

Every reader is different, and very few people read the books I prefer.

3. Do you have any suggestions for how to improve the Read-a-thon next year?

Nope, everything seemed to run smoothly.

4. What do you think worked really well in this year’s Read-a-thon?

The mini-challenges kept me busy, which was fun.  If I really want to read, however, I do best when nothing else distracts me and I can stay focused.

5. How many books did you read?

Parts of three adult books and all of three children's books.

6. What were the names of the books you read?

  The Writing on My Forehead by Nafisa Haji (50 pages of 308),

The Vagina Monologues by Eve Ensler (36 pages of 221),

Patriarchal Attitudes by Eva Figes (34 pages of 191),

Robert's Snowflakes by Grace Lin (40 pages),

Kite Flying by Grace Lin (32 pages),

Fortune Cookie Fortunes by Grace Lin (32 pages)

7. Which book did you enjoy most?

All of them.

8. Which did you enjoy least?

There wasn't one.

9. If you were a Cheerleader, do you have any advice for next year’s Cheerleaders?

Not applicable this year.

10. How likely are you to participate in the Read-a-thon again? What role would you be likely to take next time?

Very likely, and in the role of reader.

The Red Thread ~ by Grace Lin, 2007

Do you see those red threads attached to the queen and king?  That's what this story is all about.  The book's summary says,

"A sad king and queen find joy and happiness after a mysterious red thread leads them to a baby waiting to be adopted."

I always read dedications at the front of books, which sometimes give me important information.  Like the one in this book:

"This book is dedicated to all children adopted, the parents who loved them but could not keep them, and the parents who traveled far to find them."

On the page opposite the dedication is another clue to the subject of this book:

"There is an ancient Chinese belief that an invisible, unbreakable red thread connects all those who are destined to be together."

By now I don't really have to tell you the book is about the royal parents (pictured on the cover above) going on a journey to find whatever is at the other end of those red threads attached to their hearts.  You see, they woke up one morning and realized their hearts were hurting.  A peddler knew what to do.  He produced some spectacles that helped helped the queen and king see red threads looping all over the place.  They are wearing those glasses in the cover photo as they follow where the red threads lead them, over hill and dale, through villages, even tangled in a tree.  SPOILER (if you are a small child):  The strings led them to a baby!  (Oh, that was in the summary above, wasn't it?)  They hadn't realized why their hearts ached, but now they know.

"So the king and queen took the baby home to their castle, and she became the princess of the kingdom.  They never felt the pain in their hearts again.  Instead, they were filled with joy and happiness.  They never found out how the red thread had connected hem to their daughter, but they knew why.  And that was all that mattered."

But you knew that, didn't you?  And that peddler?

"The king and queen searched for the old peddler to reward him for his help.  But he had moved on to the next kingdom.  He had heard the king and queen there were suffering from a pain in their hearts."

It's a beautiful fairy tale, but my favorite pages were the first double-page spread and the last.  These were at the beginning and end of the book, framing the story of parents finding their baby.  The first page spread shows a little girl handing her mother this book.  I know it's this book because it has the exact same cover.  Both her parents are sitting on the sofa when she brings the book:

"This story again?  You've heard it a hundred times.  Are you sure?  Okay, I'll read it."

At the back of the book, all three are on the sofa.  The girl is sitting on her mommy's lap and her daddy has moved close beside them.  They are all -- now -- wearing gold crowns, helping to emphasize that the parents have brown hair and the girl has black hair.

"Yes, it's our favorite story, too."

Now for the complete title -- I give The Red Thread: An Adoption Fairy Tale by Grace Lin, author and illustrator, a rating of 9 out of 10, an excellent book.  It could become YOUR favorite story, too.

Kite Flying ~ by Grace Lin, 2002

Kite Flying, a children's book written and illustrated by Grace Lin, celebrates the Chinese tradition of kite making and kite flying.  In it, a young girl describes in simple language how her family builds a dragon kite together.  The different shapes have different meanings.  Having been born in the year of the dragon, I was delighted to learn that a dragon kite represents wisdom.  I especially like those colorful whiskers added to the dragon.  See them streaming in the wind?

Rating:  8 of 10, a very good book

National Library Week ~ and books brought home

National Library Week officially started yesterday.  That's also when one of my book clubs discussed Grace Lin's book Where the Mountain Meets the Moon, a Newbery Honor Book.  I wanted to read some of her other books, so during this week I've gotten these Grace Lin books from the library.

I also visited a bookstore and came home some books related to the Women Unbound reading challenge.

What books did you bring home this week?

Hold on!

Today I went for an eye exam (looking good! -- pun intended) and stopped by the library to pick up the books they had on hold for me.  You'd think the ten books I told you about yesterday would be enough to read, but no, here are three more.

The Higher Power of Lucky by Susan Patron is at top left.  I reviewed this 2007 Newbery Medal Winner back in 2007.  I got this copy from the library so I can promote it at my April book club meeting because some of the women want to read Newbery books.  Other Newberys that I suggest are (1) When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead, that I wrote about yesterday; (2) Where the Mountain Meets the Moon by Grace Lin, that I reviewed Friday; (3) Pictures of Hollis Woods by Patricia Reilly Giff, that my online book club read and discussed; (4) On My Honor  by Marion Dane Bauer, which I reviewed a couple of years ago; and (5) A String in the Harp by Nancy Bond, which I reviewed in August.  (Actually, I have loved quite a few more of the Newbery books, but I'll save those for another post.)

Olive Ketteridge by Elizabeth Strout has a "Winner of the Pulitzer Prize" sticker on it.  The book is due back in seven days, so I need to finish The Secret History of the Mongol Queens (see yesterday's list) and start reading this novel.  Olive lives in Maine, so I'm hoping this one will count toward my Book Around the States challenge.  I'll let you know.

I want to read America's Women: 400 Years of Dolls, Drudges, Helpmates, and Heroines by Gail Collins (the big book down front) because her 2009 book, When Everything Changed, is excellent.  Maybe I'll review them together.  America's Women spans the years from "The First Colonists" to "The Sixties"; When Everything Changed takes us from 1960 to the present.  I seem to be "doing history" backwards!

Top Ten Childhood Favorites

Jamie and Julia at The Broke and the Bookish posted their (combined) Top Ten Childhood Favorites. Here are ten of my favorite books for young folks that I've found as an adult.

1. Miss Rumphius ~ by Barbara Cooney, 1982, children's, 10/10
2. The Paper Bag Princess ~ by Robert N. Munsch, 1980, children's, 9/10
3. Where the Mountain Meets the Moon ~ by Grace Lin, 2009, children's, 9/10
4. Blueberry Girl ~ by Neil Gaiman, 2009, children's, 10/10
5. Bridge to Terabithia ~ by Katherine Paterson, 1977, children's, 9/10
6. The Lorax ~ by Dr. Seuss (Theodor Suess Geisel), 1971, children's, 10/10
7. On My Honor ~ by Marion Dane Bauer, 1986, YA fiction, 10/10
8. A Wrinkle in Time ~ by Madeleine L'Engle, 1962, YA fiction, 10/10
9. The View from Saturday ~ by E. L. Konigsburg, 1996, YA fiction, 9/10
10. The Breadwinner ~ by Deborah Ellis, 2001, YA fiction (Afghanistan), 10/10

These are from my own childhood:

1. Little Black Sambo ~ by Helen Bannerman, 1899, children's, 10/10
2. Uncle Wiggily and His Friends ~ by Howard R. Garis, 1939, children's, 8/10
3. Aesop's Fables ~ by Aesop, 10/10.  (According to the Greek historian Herodotus, the fables were written by a slave named Aesop, who lived in Ancient Greece during the 5th century BCE.  That means it was around even back in my childhood, in the 1940s.  This cover, of course, is much newer.)

Added 12-8-11
Which book on my Top Ten list would I have to take out to put in this one I just remembered?

Out of My Mind ~ by Sharon M. Draper, 2010, YA fiction, 9/10

Chinese New Year, continued

After Jane and Donna and I ate Chinese food for the new year, Jane and I went to last night's meeting of the Joseph Campbell Roundtable (Donna had another meeting).  We all three wore Chinese red.

For the arrival of the year of the Water Dragon in the Chinese zodiac, Chris Campbell gave a presentation on the I Ching, or Book of Changes and The Secret of the Golden Flower: A Chinese Book of Life, two Chinese classics.  He recommends the ones by Richard Wilhelm.

Chris was explaining the I Ching on the flipchart.  I Ching means "book of changes."  On the wall to the right is his "cursive" drawing of the Year of the Dragon, where we can almost see the dragon flying through the air.  Double click on the photo to enlarge it, so you can see the dragon's head where the line starts — in other words, starting at the darkest end of that ribbon of black ink.

Here's how he drew the golden flower.  See the eight petals?  And then he added the trigrams, which have shifted from the basic chart above.  (I can't explain it, since I'm just learning about all this.)

Chris also previewed a recently released Joseph Campbell film, Finding Joe, which he received permission to show.  So we were among the first in town to see (part of) this film.  Click on the blue link to see an even shorter bit than I saw last night.

Happy Year of the Dragon!  Yesterday, I meant to show you this wonderful children's book that I reviewed a couple of years ago.

Where the Mountain Meets the Moon by Grace Lin is a 2009 children's book, which I rated 9 of 10.  Click on the blue link to read my review.  Do you see the dragon on the cover?  The dragon is flying through the air.  Yes!

Added a bit later:  Ha!  I've learned that Chattanooga, my town, has a Dragon Museum that's all about dragons.

Lissy's Friends ~ by Grace Lin, 2007

Lissy, a lonely little girl at a new school makes her own friends by folding them from paper.  One day they blow away and other children find them -- and then come looking for Lissy, who shows them how to fold paper into animal shapes (origami).  The online summary says:

"What do you do when you're the new girl at school? If you're Lissy, you make a friend. A paper friend. And to Lissy's surprise, her little origami bird opens his eyes and says hello! So she quickly makes more friends. And soon Lissy has more friends than she can count! But what do you do when your friends have to leave? If you're Lissy, you make another friend . . . but this time one that stays. Utterly imaginative and charming, Lissy's Friends is a fresh take on the importance of friendship."

The only "folded friend" I have ever made was a frog.  Several of them, actually, and they would really "hop" when I slid my finger down -- and off -- their backs.  Folding origami is fun!  My rating:  9 of 10, an excellent book!

Alphabet of memorable books

In May, I wrote about some ten-tens, memorable books divided by categories.  This time, I'm trying to come up with memorable books based on the last names of the authors.  Could you choose 26 from your reading?

A ~ Allen, Sarah Addison ~ Garden Spells, 2007, magical realism, 9/10
B ~ Bradley, Marion Zimmer ~ The Mists of Avalon, 1982, fantasy, 10/10
C ~ Chevalier, Tracy ~ Remarkable Creatures, 2010, fiction, 9/10
D ~ Donnelley, Nina Hermann ~ Go Out in Joy!, 1977, memoir, 10/10
E ~ Erickson, Carolly ~ The Hidden Diary of Marie Antoinette, 2006, historical fiction, 8/10
F ~ Fergus, Jim ~ One Thousand White Women, 1998, historical fiction, 9.5/10
G ~ Gaiman, Neil ~ Blueberry Girl, 2009, children's, 10/10
H ~ Higgs, Liz Curtis ~ My Heart's in the Lowlands, 2007, travel, 10/10
I ~ Itani, Frances ~ Remembering the Bones, 2007, fiction, 9/10
J ~ Jaques, Florence Page ~ There Once Was a Puffin, 1995, children's, 8/10
K ~ Kidd, Sue Monk ~ The Secret Life of Bees, 2002, fiction, 10/10

L ~ Lin, Grace ~ Where the Mountain Meets the Moon, 2009, children's, 9/10
M ~ Myers, Dee Dee ~ Why Women Should Rule the World, 2008, women's studies, 9/10
N ~ Norris, Kathleen ~ Quotidian Mysteries, 1998, nonfiction, 10/10
O ~ Omar, Manal M. ~ Barefoot in Baghdad, 2010, memoir, 8/10
P ~ Patron, Susan ~ The Higher Power of Lucky, 2007, YA fiction, 9/10
Q ~ Quindlen, Anna ~ One True Thing (pre-blog), 1994, fiction, 9/10

R ~ Radish, Kris ~ Annie Freeman's Fabulous Traveling Funeral, 2006, fiction, 9/10
S ~ Seuss (Theodor Seuss Geisel) ~ The Lorax, 1971, children's picture book, 10/10
T ~ Taylor, Barbara Brown ~ An Altar in the World: A Geography of Faith, 2009, spiritual life, 8/10
U ~ Uris, Leon ~ Exodus (pre-blog), 1958, fiction, 8/10
V ~ Velikovsky, Immanuel ~ Worlds in Collision, 1950, nonfiction, 9/10
W ~ Woolf, Virginia ~ A Room of One's Own, 1929, women's studies, 9/10
X ~ Xinran ~ Sky Burial (pre-blog), 2004, fiction, 8/10
Y ~ Yolen, Jane ~ The Devil's Arithmetic (pre-blog), 1988, YA fiction, 8/10
Z ~ Zielin, Lara ~ Donut Days, 2009, YA fiction, 8/10