Book Awards Reading Challenge

The title is derived from the expression "Don't judge a man until you've walked two moons in his moccasins" And the book is all about conclusions being jumped to before the facts are in. Salamanca (Sal) Tree Hiddle has lost her mother - and her father has moved her from the country to the city. We don't know how her mother got lost, although you suspect where she might be. Sal travels with her two wonderfully individual grandparents to visit the place where her mother is. As they travel Sal tells her grandparents a story about her friend Phoebe, who is convinced there is a lunatic out to murder HER family, but whose mother walks out on them.

The two story lines merge and show how different families cope with life - Sal's father hiding the truth about Sal's mother from her, and then when she does learn what happened, Sal pretends that it hasn't. Then there is Phoebe's uptight family, held together by a mother who cracks under the stress of it. This is a book about love, loss, joy, sadness and laughter. I can see why it won the Newbery Medal - and why English teachers jump for joy to discuss the themes in class.