From: Kathleen Horning <horning>
Date: Sun, 02 Jul 1995 15:08:00 -600

Welcome to the CCBC-Net cyberdiscussion of WALK TWO MOONS by Sharon Creech. If you haven't yet read this book, we invite you to do so as soon as possible so you can fully participate in our discussion which will take place throughout the month of July.

We have just returned from the American Library Association's annual conference in Chicago where we heard Sharon Creech deliver her stellar Newbery Award acceptance speech at a banquet attended by 1100 people. The text of this speech has just been printed in the current issue of JOURNAL OF YOUTH SERVICES (Summer 1995) and it will be reprinted in the next issue of HORN BOOK magazine, along with a biographical essay about Ms Creech written by her husband, Lyle Rigg.

My name is Kathleen Horning and I had the honor of serving as Newbery Committee Chair last year. Consequently, I have gotten to know the book WALK TWO MOONS quite well! While we want to keep our discussion on CCBC-Net focussed on the book itself, I would be happy to answer any questions you have about the Newbery selection process in general. Also joining our discussion this month are other members of the 1995 Newbery Committee: Marge Loch-Wouters of Menasha's Public Library in Menasha, Wisconsin; and Carla Kozak of the Chinatown Branch of the San Francisco Public Library. Other members of the Newbery Committee may be joining our discussion as they get linked up to CCBC-Net this month. Several committee members have had an opportunity to hear directly from child readers of WALK TWO MOONS and may be willing to share some of those experiences with us as well.

I'd like to share some amazing statistics I learned at ALA. WALK TWO MOONS was published in the Spring of 1994 and prior to having won the Newbery Medal it had sold 1500 copies. Since the award announcement in February, it has sold 79,000 copies. That'll give you a good idea as to the impact winning the Newbery Medal can have on the sales of a book. It has also launched "unknown" author Sharon Creech into the spotlight overnight.

Well, with 79,000 copies in print, you should be able to find one to read, if you haven't already done so. And you're in for a treat! There is nothing quite like reading WTM for the first time because there is a surprise at the end that will change your perception of everything you had read up to that point. We don't want to spoil the surprise -- just ***read****. From this moment on, all discussion will take place with the assumption that you have read the book, so that we can talk about the ending and its impact on readers.

As we were standing in the receiving line after the banquet, shaking hands with people in the long line of well-wishers, over and over again I heard people tell Sharon Creech that the ending had been a complete surprise to them, they had never guessed it, etc. etc etc. One woman made a point of telling Sharon that she was an avid reader of adult mysteries, and could ususally guess plot outcomes, but that WTM had been a complete surprise to her. Earlier, Sharon had told me that one of the things she had been attempting with WTM was to write a book that would be a completely different story if you read it a second time.

That is how I would like to begin our discussion of WALK TWO MOONS -with the ending.
 How did you respond to it? And for those of you who have read WTM a second time, how have you experienced it the second time around?
Received on Sun 02 Jul 1995 04:08:00 PM CDT