This book is not approved for use by GCS students for any purpose (book report list, read aloud in class, or taught in class).
There are so many serious problems with this book that I could invest far too much time and waste far too much of your time listing them. (To borrow a phrase from Phil Johnson, this is a book that richly deserves to be ignored.) Nonetheless, I will mention the significant reasons why we must reject this book for any use at GCS.
THEME/MESSAGE: The author's theme for "Walk Two Moons" is a blend of politically correct post-modernism and new-age spiritualism. (This alone does not necessarily disqualify the book for consideration; well-written secular titles promoting a non-Christian world view may well be carefully presented to advanced students for the purpose of sharpening their discernment and teaching biblical truth by contrast.) "Walk Two Moons", however, is simply insufficiently well written to warrant such consideration, even for this purpose.
PLOT: The above theme is promoted through a story line that features two thirteen year old girls, both of whose mothers have left their families for what prove to be mysterious and troubling reasons. The girls' concurrent searches for their mothers, for ultimate meaning in life, and for resolution to the many conflicts presented in the book wind their way through imagined murder and mayhem, nature worship, wholly inappropriate junior high romance, and the post-modern staple of complete disregard of and disrespect for all established authority.
CHARACTERS: In each literary piece, the reader searches for one character with which to identify - at least to some extent. Books we offer to our children - or students - should offer at least one character of redeeming character. Sadly, "Walk Two Moons" fails miserably this crucial test of quality literature. As mentioned above, the two co-protagonists are insolent and disrespectful; they manipulate and openly deceive their fathers, and use the Lord's name in vain. The primary protagonist engages in cheap teen romance with one of her classmates, and, following her mother's example, prays to trees instead of God. (No, I am not making that up.)
This same young lady's grandparents (so sad...you might expect some maturity here) flippantly joke about their past marital infidelities, swim unclothed before their granddaughter, and casually lie when it suits their convenience. The JH English teacher (I take personal umbrage at this) spends little time discussing literature, but instead joyfully reads out loud in class the lurid details of his students' private journals - journals full of irreverent, mean-spirited, and scornful comments about fellow classmates.
The first protagonist's mother has left her family to discover herself, only to die in a bus accident thousands of miles away from home. Along with this poor example of womanhood-motherhood, she has left her daughter with a rich heritage of spirit and nature worship that the girl frequently uses to explain the meaning of life and circumstances. The second protagonist's mother left her family to reunite with a son born out of wedlock "before she became respectable". You can only imagine how "Walk-Two Moons" treats this tawdry episode.
Need I go on? How tragic that this "Newberry Award" winner is most likely read by the children of our nation. Please do not expose your children - or students to this wretched book.
tc | 
