Grace Lin's Where the Mountain Meets the Moon is a gorgeous, folklore-rich fantasy that reads like a traditional fable while keeping a modern pace. The story follows Minli, a girl living in the shadow of Fruitless Mountain, who embarks on a quest with a flightless dragon to find the Old Man on the Moon and fix her family's hard luck.
It is rare to find a middle-grade quest novel that prioritizes gratitude and generosity over combat or high-stakes magic destruction. The nested folktales told by characters along the way build a rich, interwoven narrative that works brilliantly as either an independent read or a family bedtime story.