Great Middle Grade Reads discussion

Your BOTM for March is Where the Mountain Meets the Moon

When you’ve read it, put your comments here, and add a question you’d like to pose for other readers.

Try not to reveal spoilers in your comments!

I began it this morning, and it looks promising :)

I just finished the audio book version today. It was interesting and I liked the fantastical quest that Min Lee went on. The way she met characters and learned from them was nice. There were lots of mini-stories that broke up the narrative and even though they were relevant to the plot, it irritated me a little. It reminds me of The Hobbit in that way. It had a fairy tale feel and ending. :)

I read this with a different angle. I am familiar with most of the Chinese folklores, having been told and read/ heard about since childhood in the same way like Sleeping Beauty and Snow White to most people. What impressed me was that they were by far the best retelling of Chinese stories in English I have come across. I was also impressed with the way Grace Lin weaved a story by connecting the separate folklores in a coherent way.

I really loved this book. Thank you so much for introducing me to the work of Grace Lin. I'm excited to share this book with my kids and look for more titles by her. Beautiful lyrical prose, and gorgeous imagery. I even enjoyed the 'lesson' - usually lessons jar with me, but this was smoothly done. So glad I joined this group!

Ree wrote: "I really loved this book. Thank you so much for introducing me to the work of Grace Lin. I'm excited to share this book with my kids and look for more titles by her. Beautiful lyrical prose, and go..."

I liked The Year of the Dog even more than I liked this one.

Oh thanks for the tip. Perfect to read this year too.

I didn't order this from the library soon enough, and it won't be arriving till after Easter. But given we keep these threads open for at least six months, I'll add my comments when I've read it.

I think I might not have got it had it not been for your comments, though. Thanks for the encouragement.

I really liked this book. It wasn't a book I would have chosen to read on my own, but I am very glad that I did. As I read it, it reminded me of one of my favorite books, My Father's Dragon with all the little quests Minli had to do throughout the book. This book would make a great read aloud and I was left wishing I had some little people left in my house to share it with.

Sandy wrote: "I really liked this book. It wasn't a book I would have chosen to read on my own, but I am very glad that I did. As I read it, it reminded me of one of my favorite books, [book:My Father's Dragon|3..."

Yes--it would have been fun to read to little people! But I'm between those stages--my own kids are in college, so we aren't yet ready for grands :D

I thought this book was wonderful. I've always enjoyed legends, and the way these were interwoven with Minli's quest really caught my imagination.
It also gave me food for thought a couple of times regarding my own situation.
So glad I read it!

I really loved this book. I listen to the Myths and Legends podcast all the time, and this was a wonderful interpretation of storytelling from long ago.

I thought this was a cute fairy tale. I like the adventure Min Lee took. I didn't like how the story was constantly interrupted by stories. It's not the stories I minded so much as the announcement of the story. Don't tell me you're going to tell me the story of the dragon (or whatever), just tell it. That might not have been as noticeable in a print edition, but it was very glaring in the audio version. Overall, I'm glad I read it and think most middle-grade readers would find it as enjoyable as the classic fairy tales.

J.S. wrote: "I thought this was a cute fairy tale. I like the adventure Min Lee took. I didn't like how the story was constantly interrupted by stories. It's not the stories I minded so much as the announcement..."
That’s an interesting thought - not needing the intro to the fable on audiobook. You sort of skip it when reading, although I did like the titles. I can imagine it would pall on audio, though.

On audio a good reader would use a change in voice that would do the job, I think. When Full Cast Audio does books, they edit out some of the dialogue tags, since there are different and distinct people reading the parts, so it's not like that couldn't be done.

Editing them out definitely would've added to the experience. Each time they said it, I thought to myself that I would've skipped it when reading and probably wouldn't have minded it as much.

Yep, sometimes the people making an audio version make interesting choices. I just finished the audio version of The 13½ Lives of Captain Bluebear and it is filled with excerpts from an encyclopedia with a really long name and every time there was an article in the story, the narrator read the whole title. It got a little old.

SaraKat wrote: "Yep, sometimes the people making an audio version make interesting choices. I just finished the audio version of The 13½ Lives of Captain Bluebear and it is filled with excerpts from a..."

Please remind me of that if I ever do an audio book for the scifi series.