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Loading... Walk Two Moons (original 1994; edition 1994)by Sharon Creech (Author)
Work InformationWalk Two Moons by Sharon Creech (Author) (1994)
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I ran across this book when I was looking for something to listen to one night. I thought from the title that it might be an indigenous tale but it is really not except that the central character, Salamanca, has some Indian blood. It is an engaging story meant for younger readers but I enjoyed it and I'm far from young. The book opens with Salamanca {Sal) having to leave her family farm near Bybanks, Kentucky to move to Euclid, Ohio. Since her mother left, it's just her father and herself and he says he can't continue to stay on the farm as it makes him too sad. In Euclid, their first stop is with a Mrs. Cadaver, a friend of her father's. Across the street from Mrs. Cadaver live the Winterbottam family, including Phoebe who will become Sal's best friend. Strange things start happening at Phoebe's house: strange notes start appearing on their porch, a young man, that Phoebe thinks is insane, starts hanging around, and then, Phoebe's mother disappears just leaving a note saying she has to go away for a while. Since this is just what Sal's mother did the two girls are determined to solve the mystery. The story about Phoebe and her family is told by Sal to her grandparents as they drive west to Idaho where her mother was last heard from. Along the trip more details about Sal, her mother and her father come out but it's not until the end of the book that we learn the whole history. This book won the Newbery Award in 1995 and so it may be outdated a bit but it's still a book that I think a lot of young people (and older people too) would enjoy. This deeply emotional story is a Newberry Medal winner. Sal takes a roadtrip with her grandparents. Along the way she tells a tale of her friend to fill the time. While she is telling this tale she learns many lessons about her own life. There are references to death throughout the story which makes it best for mature upper middle school to high school children.
A richly layered novel about real and metaphorical journeys. Deborah Stevenson (The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books, January 1995 (Vol. 48, No. 5)) Salamanca-Sal-grew up in Kentucky, but she and her father moved to Ohio after her mother's death; she and her grandparents are currently taking a road trip to Idaho, where her mother is buried. As they travel, Sal relates to her grandparents the story of her friend Phoebe, whose unhappy mother left Phoebe's family; Sal finds that recounting Phoebe's story helps her understand the desertion of her own mother, who was later killed when the bus taking her away from her family crashed. Creech skillfully keeps these layers separate but makes their interrelationship clear, and the plot moves along amid all this contemplation with the aid of a mysterious note-leaver, a local "lunatic," an eccentric English teacher, and Sal's budding romance, not to mention Mount Rushmore, Old Faithful, and a poisonous snakebite along the road of Sal's trip with her grandparents. The style is smooth and imaginative but cheerfully plain-spoken ("I wanted to jump up and say, 'Phoebe's mother has disappeared and that is why Phoebe is acting like a complete donkey,' but I didn't"), and the folksiness of Sal's grandparents (Sal's grandfather calls Sal his "chickabiddy" and his wife "gooseberry") is warm and uncontrived. Readers who enjoyed Barbara Hall's Dixie Storms (BCCB 7/90) will appreciate this strong and tender novel about all kinds of gain and loss. R*--Highly recommended as a book of special distinction. (c) Copyright 1995, The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois. 1994, HarperCollins, 280p, $15.89 and $16.00. Grades 7-12. CCBC (Cooperative Children's Book Center Choices, 1994) Singular, vividly realized characters are at the heart of this moving, funny and astonishing novel. On a cross-country trip to Idaho to visit her mother, thirteen-year-old Sal fascinates and delights her grandparents with the story of mystery surrounding her best friend Phoebe Winterbottom, or Peeby as Gram and Gramps refer to her. But in telling Phoebe's story, Sal is also telling her grandparent's her own - how she is dealing with the changes in her life since her mother left their Kentucky home and she and her father moved to Ohio. The narrative moves back and forth between Sal on the road with her grandparents and Sal's story of Phoebe, but throughout, she privately reflects on her own memories of life back in Kentucky before her mother went away, when things seemed calm and whole. The journey west with her grandparents, who are colorful, quirky characters with boundless love, is healing for Sal as she comes to understand and accept why her mother went away. An added bonus for Wisconsin readers are the stops Sal and her grandparents make in downtown Madison and the Wisconsin Dells as they journey west. Winner, 1994 CCBC Newbery Award Discussion. CCBC categories: Fiction For Children; Fiction For Teenagers. 1994, HarperCollins, 280 pages, $15.89. Ages 10-14. Belongs to SeriesWalk Two Moons (1) Is contained inHas as a student's study guideHas as a teacher's guideAwardsNotable Lists
After her mother leaves home suddenly, thirteen-year-old Sal and her grandparents take a car trip retracing her mother's route. Along the way, Sal recounts the story of her friend Phoebe, whose mother also left. No library descriptions found. |
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Google Books — Loading... GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)813.54Literature English (North America) American fiction 20th Century 1945-1999LC ClassificationRatingAverage:
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A Middle-Grade book I read as an "assignment" by my editor for a manuscript I'm writing. From the writing perspective, it took a minute to understand the suggestion, but now I get it. It was also a nice read.
Walk Two Moons takes young Sal on a journey with her grandparents to retrace her vanished mother's steps from Bybanks, Kentucky, to Lewiston, Idaho. Given that I grew up 60 miles from Lewiston, Idaho, I thought how odd and fun. And it was.
Along the way, Sal explains to her grandparents an intertwined, underlying story of her friend Phoebe and her mother, who mysteriously also vanished. The circumstances are completely different for Phoebe, whose mother comes back with her eldest, adopted son in tow. On the other hand, Sal learns that her mother had passed away in Lewiston and was never coming home.
The book is a good life lesson for the 8-12-year-olds, written with a soft touch on the grown-up side and much realism on Sal's side. Any youngster, or oldster, would enjoy it.
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