to go by the law. The law says that a man that pays money for a dog owns that dog." At odds with this philosophy, Marty strongly believes that love—not money—should determine ownership. Ethics In Shiloh, Naylor does not impart an explicit meaning of "honesty" to her juvenile readers, journalist Nancy Gilson observed. Instead, she conveys how "confusing and unanswerable" morality is using main character Marty's ethical predicaments and plot twists. To harbor Shiloh from the antagonist Judd and his principled parents, Marty must steal food and tell falsehoods. His dishonest actions serve as a contrast to his conscientious persona and his benevolent rescuing of the dog. In one scene, Marty prays, "Jesus ... which do you want me to do? Be one hundred percent honest and carry that dog back to Judd so that one of your creatures can be kicked and starved all over again, or keep him here and fatten him up to glorify your creation?" According to Judith B. Rosenfeld of the Knoxville News-Sentinel, Naylor makes the statement that children raised in healthy families make ethical choices and ultimately thrive. In a 1994 interview Naylor said: Naylor believes that there is much "gray area between right and wrong". Instead of following the straightforward correct path, Marty is forced to select between two unpalatable choices. Reviewer Matt Berman of The Times-Picayune believed that the book's main moral is that "nothing is as simple as it seems". Entertainment Weekly Michele Landsberg praised the novel, writing that Shiloh is a "strongly persuasive story of moral growth, told without a hint of moralizing and with acute insight into a preadolescent's inner life". In the children's literature journal The ALAN Review published by The Assembly on Literature for Adolescents, Edgar H. Thompson, Connie B. Blevins, and Allison Fitzgerald argued that protagonist Marty "consistently behaves" at levels 5 and 6 of Kohlberg's stages of development. For instance, on his walk to Judd's house, he wonders: "Easy as pie for Judd Travers to put a bullet hole in my head, say he didn't see me." Despite his fears, Marty continues walking to Judd's house, persistent on protecting Shiloh despite potential bodily harm and even death to himself. The authors brooded over whether an 11 year old could attain such an elevated level despite most adults' never being able to do so. Ultimately noting that the Newbery Committee and thousands of readers consider Marty