"Ming Lo Moves the Mountain" Written and Illustrated by Arnold Lobel

One of my all time favorite books to read to my first grade class was this book "Ming Lo Moves the Mountain" written and illustrated by Arnold Lobel. It was published in 1982 and is a Mulberry Book. No matter how many times I read this book to my students, by the time I get to the end I want to scream out the character.....you didn't move the mountain, you just moved your house. Oops, I hope I didn't just spoil the ending for you.

Characters

Ming Lo, his wife, and the Wise Man,

Plot

The summary of the book is as follows; a couple live next to the side of a mountain. The wife is angry because she does not like living so close to this mountain. The mountain just brings problems and bad luck. Bad things keep happening to their house and she has had enough. First of all, the mountain provides too much shade and the wife can't grow anything in her garden. The shade also caused their house too be too cold since the sunlight can never shine through. Rocks and stones keep breaking loose from the cliffs and they are creating holes in the roof of their house. Whenever it rains, which is almost all of the time, the rain gets in the house and the rooms become damp and wet.

Ming Lo searches for help and goes see the wise man that lives in the village. The wife tells him to go to him and ask him how to move the mountain so they can live in peace and happiness. When Ming Lo finds the wise man, the wise man tells him to cut down the tallest, thickest tree near the mountain and then push the tree into the side of the mountain will all of their strength. Ming Lo and his wife try this but it does not work. Ming Lo goes back to the Wise man for more help. Next, the Wise man tells him to take the pots and pans from their kitchen and bang them as hard as they can and scream at the top of your lungs. This was supposed to frighten the mountain away. Nope, they tried it but it didn't work. The Wise man tells Ming Lo to bake cake and bread and bring them to the top of the mountain for the Spirit as a present. The Spirit will then grant you your wish to move the mountain. Ming Lo and his wife try this too but nope, doesn't work either. Finally, the Wise man tells Ming Lo take his house apart stick by stick and to do the "Dance of the Mountain." He tells him to close his eyes and take one step back until they can't get anymore. This will move the mountain. So Ming Lo and his wife take their house apart, pack up all of their belongings, and start the "Dance of the Mountain." When they were finished, they opened their eyes and couldn't believe what they saw. They had actually moved the mountain! They rebuilt their house stick by stick, unpacked their belongings and lived happily ever after.

Conclusion

Did Ming Lo and his wife really move the mountain? No. Obviously all they did was move their house. Every time I read this, I get so frustrated and just want to yell out....move your house! I love reading this book to my students and seeing their reaction when we get to the end of the book. Some of my students start yelling it out too, just move your house! I think that it is wonderful that a story can grab the attention of my students so well. As part of reading this story, you can also ask your student to come up with different ways they could think of to "move the mountain." The illustrations in this book are done well. Each picture shows in detail frame by frame how the story develops. I highly recommend reading this book to your students. I would probably stay in the range of first graders up to about fourth/fifth graders. This book was originally purchased for $4.95 but that was almost 10 years ago. That is how long I have had this book, probably even longer. I just went onto Amazon.com and you could purchase this book new for $6.95. I was happy to see that it is still in production. It would have been a shame if it weren't in production anymore.

Happy reading!