02/11/2025
I was selected to receive an early copy of Grace Lin's newest novel, The Gate, the Girl, and the Dragon, and I highly recommend it! It's being released on May 6th, 2025!
This is my review:
This novel is set to become a classic alongside Grace Lin’s beloved Where the Mountain Meets the Moon series, with another spirited child (or cub!) on an exciting high-stakes adventure guided by storytellers and his passions and convictions! This new character is a welcome addition to children’s literature. Grace Lin has crafted many spunky, strong female characters, but the feature character here is a wonderfully relatable impulsive boy cub. These stories are also incredibly important! He struggles with huge emotions and the shame of making a catastrophic mistake. Still, he picks himself up off the street and faces the problem with resilience, eventually rekindling the relationship with his father. This makes him a fantastic role model! In particular, this novel will ignite conversations about change, loss, grief, emotions, responsibility, accountability, love, kindness, citizenship, and deception. Besides that, just imagine a lion cub pouncing on a ball and romping through a city! Isn’t that simply adorable? What about a lion cub, a mysterious girl, and a puny dragon? Are you intrigued yet? Okay, so what about stone cats?
Another new and thrilling thing is that much of this story takes place in a modern city, rather than in an ancient Chinese village. Signature Chinese elements still come through powerfully and artistically with the magic of towering red doors, Chinese New Year lanterns, sky lanterns, intricate embroidery, plum blossoms, lotus pools, the luminous moon, and a noble dragon! Teachers will relish the rich diction and the opportunities to teach about the history of Confucius, the Terracotta Warriors, tomb figurines, bell towers, walled cities with gates, and soccer! In particular, what does that Female Dancer look like in the Metropolitan Museum of Art? As for art, what about diving into sculpting, embroidery, or sewing? What is a seam ripper, anyway? Do some bells really sound like “My shoe .. . my shoe”? Also, which other cultures have weeping willow legends? Which other mythologies have living statues? There are many other educational avenues to explore, like star designs, erosion, environmentalism, city designs, rocks, the moon, comets, and meteors. The list is endless!
Beyond being educational, Grace Lin’s prose is elegant and ever-meaningful, and enthusiasts will rejoice at the opportunity to seek out the numerous clues and threads tying each character and chapter together with Chinese mythology, history, culture, and even her other books! Having said that, do you remember the red threads mentioned in Where the Mountain Meets the Moon, Starry River of the Sky, and When the Sea Turned to Silver? Are you rusty on the mythology surrounding Nüwa, as introduced in Starry River of the Sky and When the Sea Turned to Silver? What about the four river dragons in Where the Mountain Meets the Moon? I, too, will have to reread Starry River of the Sky to refresh on the Celestial Rooster! It may be time to dive back into those gorgeous modern classics, but AFTER reading this one (especially if you can get ahold of a copy with the gorgeous sprayed edges!!!)
Grace Lin has sprinkled countless hidden treasures for us close readers and book “detectives”! It is a fabulous family read, and an excellent way to boost close reading skills as you look for foreshadowing and practice inference. Can you solve some of these mysteries: Can the voice be trusted? Just who is that dragon who keeps getting mentioned anyway?!! Who's the girl in the title? Who is Great-Aunt Mei Hua? Lulu’s father?
This is a stand-alone novel, not part of the Where the Mountain Meets the Moon series. Despite this, I couldn’t help but find connections between this story and the others. One of my first thoughts while reading was–Wait! Does this Jin have any connections to Aunt Jin or Xiao Mao in Where the Mountain Meets the Moon?! Then, I paused thinking about the magical statues and those on Green Island in Mulan: Before the Sword, and I connected it to this quotation from Where the Mountain Meets the Moon: “‘Everything’s alive–the ground you’re walking on, the bark of those trees. We were always alive, even before we were lions and were just raw stone. However, carving us did give us a bit more personality.’” Later, I was sure I saw a reference to Fruitless Mountain. I'm curious whether anyone else could find the spot. Finding these connections is absolutely thrilling! For example, the sightless lion-head door knockers bring the eyeless Dragon painting in Where the Mountain Meets the Moon to mind and the Sculptor is a bit similar to the stonecutter in When the Sea Turned to Silver. Then, there are Daji’s sweet words and the stinging, needle bees in Mulan: Before the Sword . . . What about the black sky in Starry River of the Sky? There are even multiple characters with intermittent memories, and I’m certainly eager for my learners to compare Mountain Maitreya with Mr. Shan!
Like all of Grace Lin’s novels, this one is infused with emotion and warmth, and it’s adventurous and fun, especially when you read it alongside her other novels! It’s an absolutely enchanting read with the author’s colourful artwork throughout, so what are you waiting for?
NOTE: I don't receive any profits, but I am thrilled to have been selected by Grace Lin, and I was touched by her story!
The link below has ordering information, including how to get perks like a first edition with fancy spredges, a virtual visit with Grace Lin on April 29th, a sticker, or an enamel pin.
https://linktr.ee/gracelinauthor?fbclid=IwY2xjawIXmXVleHRuA2FlbQIxMAABHXxNj_4WMvg0eAx_dAXxr9xNd2z6hQIaCZCvZYaE1_udlq1VJelGiwtiTA_aem_-DWvLvugHUzkIpJuGvuazw
These indie stores have the preorder gifts, but you can preorder anywhere!
