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Book Review: Walk Two Moons by Sharon Creech


[button color=”black” size=”big” link=”http://affiliates.abebooks.com/c/99844/77798/2029?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.abebooks.com%2Fservlet%2FSearchResults%3Fisbn%3D9780330397834″ target=”blank” ]Purchase here[/button]

Walk Two Moons
by Sharon Creech

The 1995 Newbery Medal winner is part mystery, part family drama, with a gentle philosophical heart and a conclusion in which an ample supply of Kleenex is advised.

Salamanca Tree Hiddle is a 13-year-old girl, distantly related (on her mother’s side) to Native Americans. She doesn’t understand why her mother has gone away and doesn’t believe that she isn’t going to come back. But her father, an awfully good man, is pretty sure. So they move from their idyllic Kentucky farm to a colorless town in northern Ohio, where Dad seems to have hooked up with a girlfriend who, creepily enough, is named Mrs. Cadaver.

Sal doesn’t want to face any of this right now, so the woes of her school friend Phoebe become a welcome distraction, especially when Phoebe’s perfect, upright family is thrown into confusion by her mother’s mysterious disappearance. Plus, someone is leaving cryptic messages on Phoebe’s porch, a potential lunatic keeps approaching her on the street, and Mrs. Cadaver (who lives next door to Phoebe) seems to be conspiring with her weird English teacher, Mr. Birkway–possibly burying murder victims in the backyard.

How this mystery develops forms the material of a story Sal narrates to her grandparents, as they drive to Idaho so Sal can visit her mother and see once and for all if they can bring her home again. And as she tells the story of Phoebe and her missing mother, Sal realizes that her own story–hers and her mother’s–lies behind it; and in an equally moving way, so does the story of her grandparents’ 51-year love affair.

I won’t disguise from you that I thought I saw “whodunit” coming from a long way away. Yet even when I turned out to be right, the effect when the mystery was unveiled was like a punch in the gut. This novel has a complexity and elegance far above what one finds in most children’s literature. But its sweetness, its touch of romance, its air of spookiness, its heartache and its hope make such a strong, rich brew, that I think it will hold your attention riveted right to the last page.

  • Post date
    September 29, 2004
  • Posted by
    Robbie
  • Posted in Book Reviews
Previous post: Book Review: Love That Dog by Sharon Creech Next post: Book Review: Sarah, Plain and Tall by Patricia MacLachlan

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