Takeaway: In a novel it seems to be appropriate to spread out a simple story over a five day car trip.
I am a fan of young adult fiction. But I often do not enjoy middle grade fiction. There is something about the middle grade years that seems to rub me the wrong way. I am not sure what it is.
Whatever it is, Walk Two Moons seemed to hit all my buttons. The story is narrated by the main character (Sal) as she and her grandparents drive from her home to see her mother.
Coincidentally, Sal tells her grandparents about her best friend (Phoebe) and how Phoebe’s mom disappeared without a trace. And how that affected Phoebe and those around her. Of course, this is partially her own story. Sal’s mother left the family, which led to Sal and her Dad leaving their family farm and moving into town. So Sal is relating Phoebe’s story as a way of coming to terms with her own story.
But the story goes on forever. It is not the length of the story that really annoyed me. It is the fact that the story which is a couple hundred pages in book form takes five days to tell on the drive the Idaho. Just get the story over already.
In the end there was a twist that I should have seen coming, but I did not. It really is a fairly good book for middle grade students to work through issues of family break-up (I think it is relevant to divorce, death and several other forms of family change.)
But I was just not engaged with the book, I wanted it to be over from about 30 pages in. It took me nearly a month to actually get around to finishing the book. This is a good example of a Newbery winning book that I just did not think was all that good. I picked it up when it was on sale for $0.99 and I was glad that I did.
Walk Two Moons Purchase Links: Paperback, Kindle Editions, Audible.com Audiobook