As one of the best books I have read recently, the book
Walk Two Moons scores a huge 10/10 from me. It's lovely, with the two threads woven into a fine, smooth story. 14-year-old Sal has an urgent deadline to reach her mother's gravestone on her birthday. On the way, she recalls the story of her best friend Phoebe's mother's mysterious disappearance.
Salamanca Tree Hiddle is the sole daughter of Chanhassen "Sugar" Hiddle and John Hiddle. One day, traveling from Euclid, Ohio, to Lewiston, Idaho, where Sal's mother died in a bus accident, with her paternal grandparents "Gram" and "Gramps", Gramps suggests that Sal "spin us a yarn", referring to a story, Sal decides to tell the curious story of Phoebe Winterbottom and the lunatic.
Phoebe's mother Norma isn't supposed to do anything too shocking, just cook and bake and be nice and polite, but one day she disappears completely, to the surprise of Phoebe. In addition, a mysterious note-leaver is leaving odd sayings on Phoebe's front porch, such as:
"Everyone has their own agenda," and "Never judge a man until you've walked two moons in his moccasins."
On top of it all, there is a suspicious boy in his twenties who is snooping around Phoebe's house, looking for her mother, and a particular boy named Ben in Sal's life, which, as Michael D. Beil, the author of the wonderful, but sadly not very well-known, series The Red Blazer Girls, once said, "complicates everything, as Boys usually do."
I recommend this book to girls ages ten and up, or nine years old if you want a challenging book. I think that people who enjoy the following books should read this book, and if you have read this book, you might want to try reading the following:
Out of the Dust, by Karen Hesse
Love, Audrey, by Suzanne LaFleur
Princess Academy, by Shannon Hale
Rules, by Cynthia Lord
The Red Blazer Girls Series, by Michael D. Beil
--Dana
