''Walk Two Moons'' is a novel written by
Sharon Creech
Sharon Creech (born July 29, 1945) is an American writer of children's novels. She was the first American winner of the Carnegie Medal for British children's books and the first person to win both the American Newbery Medal and the British C ...
, published by HarperCollins in 1994 and winner of the 1995
Newbery Medal
The John Newbery Medal, frequently shortened to the Newbery, is a literary award given by the Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC), a division of the American Library Association (ALA), to the author of "the most distinguished contr ...
.
The novel was originally intended as a follow-up to Creech's previous novel ''
Absolutely Normal Chaos
''Absolutely Normal Chaos'' is a children's or young-adult novel by Sharon Creech, published in the U.K. by Macmillan Children's Books in 1990. It was the American author's first book for children, completed at the midpoint of nearly two decades ...
''; but, the idea was changed after she began writing it.
Plot
The novel is narrated by a 13-year-old girl named Salamanca (Sal). Sal's mother has recently left Sal's father, and Sal's grandparents are taking her on a cross-country road trip to
Lewiston, Idaho
Lewiston is a city and the county seat of Nez Perce County, Idaho, United States, in the state's north central region. It is the second-largest city in the northern Idaho region, behind Coeur d'Alene, and ninth-largest in the state. Lewiston is ...
to see her mother. Sal loves nature and was very close to her mother before she left. On the trip, Sal entertains her grandparents by telling a story about her friend in
Euclid, Ohio
Euclid is a city in Cuyahoga County, Ohio, United States. It is an inner ring suburb of Cleveland. As of the 2020 census, the city had a total population of 49,692.
History
The City of Euclid was originally a part of Euclid Township, first map ...
, Phoebe Winterbottom, whose mother suddenly disappeared and left their family too, and about Ben Finney, with whom Sal wants to begin a romantic relationship. Throughout the book, as Sal's story unfolds and their car travels west, she reveals more details about Phoebe, and why her story reminds Salamanca of her own. The more she tells her grandparents of Phoebe's story, the more she feels like her story is less connected to Phoebe's story. When Sal reaches the
Missouri River, her grandmother, or referred to as Gram, is bitten by a
Cottonmouth snake
''Agkistrodon piscivorus'' is a species of pit viper in the subfamily Crotalinae of the family Viperidae. It is one of the world's few semiaquatic vipers (along with the Florida cottonmouth), and is native to the southeastern United States. As ...
. Sal reaches Coeur D'Alene while Gram suffers a stroke and has to stay in a hospital. Gramps wanted to stay with Gram, but he wanted Salamanca to reach her mother in
Lewiston so he gives her his car to drive. Sal reaches Lewiston but then the readers find out that Salamanca's mother had died in a bus crash while coming here and Salamanca knew that.
Themes
The major themes in the story include the development of new relationships, dealing with grief, love, death,
cultural identity,
women's roles as mothers and wives,
the hardships of life, and the adventures of misunderstandings and coming to terms with reality. Creech drew on her background for many of the book's themes and images, including Sal's love of nature, her relationship with her mother, and the road trip to
Idaho
Idaho ( ) is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. To the north, it shares a small portion of the Canada–United States border with the province of British Columbia. It borders the states of Montana and Wyom ...
that frames the narrative.
In an interview, Creech said that she found the
aphorism
An aphorism (from Greek ἀφορισμός: ''aphorismos'', denoting 'delimitation', 'distinction', and 'definition') is a concise, terse, laconic, or memorable expression of a general truth or principle. Aphorisms are often handed down by tra ...
that gives the book its title ("Don't judge a man until you've walked two moons in his moccasins") in a
fortune cookie
A fortune cookie is a crisp and sugary cookie wafer usually made from flour, sugar, vanilla, and sesame seed oil with a piece of paper inside, a "fortune", usually an aphorism, or a vague prophecy. The message inside may also include a Chinese ...
.
Sharon Creech is not indigenous, though she claims a vague, Native heritage. Indigenous Americans have expressed disappointment in the stereotypical and romanticized depiction of Native Americans in ''Walk Two Moons''.
Debbie Reese
Debbie Reese is a Nambé Pueblo scholar and educator. Reese founded American Indians in Children's Literature, which analyzes representations of Native and Indigenous peoples in children's literature. She co-edited a young adult adaptation of '' ...
on Creech's authority to write about Indigenous Americans: "She's an outsider to Native culture, trying to write a story as if she's an insider. But her story is based on outsider's writings, and outsider's understandings, and it doesn't work... the Indian content doesn't really matter. It is simply a device, or, a decoration on a story about a young girl coming to terms with life and death."
Creech on her indigenous heritage and inspiration: "My cousins maintain that one of our ancestors was an American Indian. As a child, I loved that notion, and often exaggerated it by telling people that I was a full-blooded Indian. I inhaled Indian myths... I crept through the woods near our house, reenacting these myths, and wishing, wishing, for a pair of soft leather moccasins. (I admit --but without apology--that my view of American Indians was a romantic one.)"
Awards
In 1995, ''Walk Two Moons'' won the
Newbery Medal
The John Newbery Medal, frequently shortened to the Newbery, is a literary award given by the Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC), a division of the American Library Association (ALA), to the author of "the most distinguished contr ...
, the United Kingdom Reading Association Award, and the United Kingdom's
Children's Book Award Children's Book Award is a generic term that has been applied to:
* Caldecott Medal, Caldecott Medal, annual "most distinguished American picture book for children"
* Dorothy Canfield Fisher Children's Book Award from the Vermont Department of Lib ...
. In 1996, it received the
WH Smith Mind-Boggling Book Award
The WH Smith Literary Award was an award founded in 1959 by British high street retailer W H Smith. Its founding aim was stated to be to "encourage and bring international esteem to authors of the British Commonwealth"; originally open to all res ...
. In 1997, it also won the Literaturhaus Award, Austria, and the
Young Adult Sequoyah Award.
References
{{Newbery Medal
1994 American novels
American children's novels
Newbery Medal–winning works
Novels by Sharon Creech
Novels set in Ohio
1994 children's books