Rereading Walk Two Moons by Sharon Creech

Gramps says that I am a country girl at heart, and that is true.I have lived most of my thirteen years in Bybanks, Kentucky, which is not much more than a caboodle of houses roosting in a green spot alongside the Ohio River. 

Walk Two Moons is an amazing MG realistic fiction novel. It's one of those simple but really resonating stories. Thirteen year old Salamanca Hill is driving on a road trip with her grandparents. Along the way, she entertains them with the outrageous story of one of her friends, Phoebe Winterbottom. And as she tells this story, her own begins to slowly come clear, like the brick wall that her father chipped away at, the story of a girl who only wants to see her mother again. As the back cover says, "In her own award-winning style, Sharon Creech intricately weaves together two tales, one funny, one bittersweet, to create a heartwarming, compelling, and utterly moving story of love, loss and the complexity of human emotion." That's a lot for one short novel to contain. But Walk Two Moons really does contain (at least most) of those elements. I love interwoven tales too, so it adds to the appeal of this book for me. Though that obviously wasn't my only reason for rereading it. It's an entertaining and quick read.

A lot of parts of Walk Two Moons are just so sad, like the ending, and many of the little anecdotes that Sal relates about her mother. You can see that her mother is troubled, and she ends up deciding to just take off and leave them. And Sal has to figure out how to deal with it, because obviously, things will never be the same again.

But there are also a lot of funny parts; Phoebe, for example. She's a hilarious character, so wacky and full of fun. And also suspecting mad-ax murderers and lunatics at every turn. Also, some of the country phrases like "chickabiddy" and "huzza huzza", as well as others, are amusing, and add some character to the novel.

I love Walk Two Moons a lot, but I don't know if it should have won the Newbery Prize. It's certainly more deserving than other books that have (like Dead End in Norvelt, which I didn't like at all), but I feel like there are lots of great books. It's just so hard to decide, I suppose.

I also love the collage art on the cover, and I really do like Sharon Creech's distinctive writing. Walk Two Moons is an excellent novel, certainly deserving of acclaim.

280 pages.

 

Outstanding Book That Will Stay On My Bookshelf For Rereading (jf I own it)!