Written by Sharon Creech, Walk Two Moons is the winner of the Newberry Medal.
Upon reading this text, at about the fourth chapter, I could not believe it won a Newbery Medal. My belief came without fact, so I researched the Newbery Medal award. A Google search revealed the following criterion:
Without a doubt, Walk Two Moons meets the requirements for a Newbery Medal. Sadly, it seems that a book needs to be clear in terms of character, setting, and plot. Although this blog post is not written to review the Newbery Medal awarding system, it does seem to mostly evaluate a book based on clarity. Yes, Walk Two Moons is very clear.
In terms of readability, this book was a struggle to get through. Although it is a short book, and could probably be read in a day, several of the chapters are trite. Engaging a tween with this book would be difficult. Creech spends 80% of the book developing characters through storytelling, but it is done through dialogue, and conversing with others. No action is happening, the characters are usually in wonderment about the mystery. Tons of character development without the characters actually doing anything.Overall, the book lacks substance. I did not care about the characters by the end of the story, and by the 30% mark, I was hoping for it to end!
Not only is the readability heavily influenced by the lack of nothingness in this text, it is also frustrating to read. Many times, Phoebe (a character in the text) asks Sal to “call the police.” This phrase is heavily overused throughout the entirety of the text, and it was frustrating that it was offered as a solution to the empty conflicts in the book. It was asked several times, but never executed.
At first, the book reads like it is an adventure, but when the story is told by Sal, one may be pulled into the mystery genre. Both genres are poorly developed in this book, and this duelity really did not aid the text as a whole. This technique felt jagged and forced by the author.
After getting through the first 200 pages, something worth reading does happen. Creech’s writing shines most when action happens; she is able to write suspenseful words, and not just trite developments of character. Events at the end of the story really did save this book from a complete scathing review.
I will commend Chreech for her ability to develop the elderly characters in this book: Gram and Gramps were funny. These two characters were probably my favorite and the best developed.
Newbery Medals are won by writing clear, precise, American literature. As writer’s for children, it is imperative that we not only write clearly, but think about how we can write to engage our readership. Clarity can still result in a trite story, and the Newbery Medal awards clearly fail to consider how a book can be engaging.
5/10
+Newbery Award
-No action (until the last 5% of the book)
+Grams and Gramps are somewhat funny characters; they are for sure the most developed and entertaining characters in the story.
-Way too much time spent developing characters. But, mind you, it is all very clear!
-Two genres built into one book is a great thought, but fails overall. Both stories are weak and trite.
-As a professional English educator, I believe this book would be very difficult to engage students.