Walk Two Moons

I don't know how many times I've read this book. Dozens. I have listened to the audiobook so many times too. This is a story that has always devastated me at the end, although it's also got a beautiful hopefulness to it. It's hard to remember the first time I read it, having read it so many times, but I don't think I figured out the ending before I got there. Of course, I was probably around 12 when I read it the first time... but I guess I just believed what I was told in the story and didn't think something else might be going on. The multiple levels of the story (Sal's, Phoebe's, and Sal's grandparents') have affected me differently at different times. It's interesting to have a book I've read across so much of my life and how the show more point I'm at in my life changes my focus, but no matter what the story always moves me. show less

Book on CD performed by Kate Harper

From the book jacket: "How about a story? Spin us a yarn."
Instantly, Phoebe Winterbottom came to mind. "I could tell you an extensively strange story," I warned.
"Oh, good!" Gram said. "Delicious!"
And that is how I happened to tell them about Phoebe, her disappearing mother, and the lunatic.

As Sal entertains her grandparents with Phoebe's outrageous story, her own story begins to unfold — the story of a thirteen-year-old girl whose only wish is to be reunited with her missing mother.

My reactions
I never read this book, though I had heard of it. Well, I had heard the title, though I knew nothing about it. Somehow, I had it in my head that “Walk Two Moons” was the name of a Native American character show more in the novel. It isn’t. Rather it refers to a saying that you never really know someone until you’ve walked two moons in his moccasins.

I was completely drawn into the book from the beginning, as I learned that Sal was forced to move from her beloved Kentucky farm some 300 miles north to a town where there wasn’t even a tree in her yard. I could completely understand and empathize with her distress over this move. (Heck, I’m facing a move in the next year or so from my home to a smaller residence and I’m not happy about it … at all.)

I loved the intergenerational nature of this story. Sal is on a long road trip with her grandparents as she tells the story of Phoebe and the lunatic. It’s clear that she has a close relationship with Gram and Gramps, though she is sometimes embarrassed by their behavior. I was happy for her that this relationship gave her a sense of security and comfort, when her missing mother and her father’s methods of dealing with that absence did not seem to be what Sal needed.

I also like how Sal’s own story was revealed as she told the story of her friend Phoebe. The similarities – and differences – provided a way for Sal (and the reader) to absorb what had happened, to face the truth, even if coming at it sideways.

I finished it sitting in the car, crying. It is sad, but still a hopeful ending as Sal and her father come to terms with all that has happened and begin to find happiness again.

Kate Harper does a marvelous job performing the audiobook. She really brought these young teens to life: Sal, Phoebe, Ben and Mary Lou. And I loved the voice she used for Gram - Huzza Huzza! show less

This is the story of Sal Hiddle's road trip across the US with her grandparents.

Despite completely loving it and it making me cry, it did drag a bit in the second half, I found myself skipping ahead, which I very seldom do in books. Which was probably an error, because I spoilered myself with a twist I hadn't seen coming, although in some ways reading the second half of the book watching Sal lie to herself that her mother isn't dead was an even more powerful read.

What's it about? Stories in stories. How we understand our own stories through listening to other people's stories, and understand ourselves through reflections in others. How we should see things from the other person's point of view.

There is a strong theme of women who leave, show more who are being crushed by the pressure of family life and just run away. Sal's mother, crushed by the still birth of her second child, goes on a roadtrip (which has a tragic outcome). Phoebe's mother, leaves with no warning and goes to rebuild her relationship with the child she gave up for adoption. There is a half told story about the time even Sal's grandma left her grandpa for three days to run off with the egg man, who actually wrote her love letters. What do we take from this, women who leave and mostly return? Their children are sad and angry and bitter about it, but also are taught that a person has to go out and do things, and mother dogs drive off their puppies when they are weened.

There is also so much death in this book. The only other Sharon Creech I have read is 'Love that dog', I wonder if all her books are about someone needing to grieve who isn't ready to grieve yet and has to try and understand their loss? I was not prepared for the baby dying, or the snake bite, or gram dying, or for the twist that Sal's mum can never come back because she is dead. It is such a sweet book in so many ways, with blackberry kisses and farm life and all the highlights of traveling across the USA, geysers and badlands, and then so much tragedy. I guess that is life.

Oddly, in a book where many unusual things happen, it was the English teacher deciding to read out people's personal journals without realising that anonymisation doesn't work in a tiny class that struck me as most stupid and unlikely! show less

As Salamanca Tree Hiddle travels from Ohio to Idaho on a road trip with her grandparents, she tells the story of her friend Phoebe Winterbottom's missing mother. Layered under that is the story of Sal's own missing mother, who went away to figure a few things out, and never returned.

This book is masterfully written and fully deserving of the honors it has received. The author makes excellent use of foreshadowing and other literary techniques to hint at the conclusion of the story, without blatantly giving too much away. I thought I had solved some of the book's mysteries early on (and for the record, I was correct!), but I could never be sure until the end. And some of the things that happened in the story really did throw me for a show more loop! This book brought both laughter and tears, and I highly recommend it. show less

I wish I had found Walk Two Moons when it first came out. In fact, I wish it had been on my reading list in school because I know I would have eaten it up. I know this because, despite my current age, I still fell deeply in love with this book. It's ageless, and it's wonderful.

Salamanca Tree Hiddle (Sal)is a thirteen year old narrator who will steal your heart. We embark on a car trip with Sal and her eccentric grandparents, all the while learning bits about their lives, her life, and the life of her best friend Phoebe. Let me please tell you how much I loved each and every character in this book. Sal is sweet, kind and witty far beyond what her age dictates. Her grandparents are the picture of what true love really is. Even Phoebe, the show more girl who worries about everything, fits perfectly in the story. There is everything to love in Creech's characters and they make the story come to life.

Sharon Creech weaves the stories of Sal and Phoebe into a story that took my breath away. A story that is funny, honest, and at times so heartbreaking that you'll find yourself teary eyed. During the car trip Sal's thoughts take the reader on a journey through her innermost self. I adored watching her grow, make observations, and just become even more amazing. I'm not even certain I'm making sense at this point. That's how much Walk Two Moons threw me off. It's beautiful.

This is a must read for people of all ages, but I definitely suggest you put it in the hands of your middle grade reader as soon as possible. Young readers will learn from, and walk with Sal. Older readers will get the chance to revisit some of those hidden feelings we hide. The raw ones that we push down as we grow up. It's a wonderful, and terrifying, feeling all at the same time. In my opinion, Walk Two Moons is a book that will make a reader out of a non-reader. I sincerely hope you love it as much as I did. show less

Pandora’s Box provides a nice analogy for present-day life in Sharon Creech’s Walk Two Moons. Why would Pandora open the box? Why would hope be left inside? And what would be found at the bottom of a box of good things?

Sal’s mother is absent. Her father moves her away from their home, making her go to a new school, where her new best friend is suddenly missing her mother too. All this is in the story Sal tells her grandparents as they take her on a road trip, as the three strands of Walk Two Moons weave beautifully together. Simple language illuminates complex topics, offering a convincingly childish point of view, with very natural avoidance of the true, and pleasing persistence of imagination. Maybe a lunatic stole the mother. show more Maybe the neighbor killed her husband and buried him in the yard. Maybe…

Or maybe life falls inevitably into the realm of Pandora’s box. With hope at the bottom, lifting both reader and characters to safety. Walk Two Moons invites adult readers to walk in the shoes of children, while simultaneously inviting children to walk in the shoes of their parents. Truth is hidden between the imaginations, and truth hurts. But hope will save.

Written for children, best for mature readers (5th grade up?), and for readers who choose to think, Walk Two Moons is the sort of novel that just might invite a child to see through different eyes and find their own hope waiting. Coming of age, coming to wisdom, and coming in hope… Highly recommended.

Disclosure: It came highly recommended and it was a birthday present. show less

One of my all-time favorite novels ever, this quirky, funny, heartwarming book touched my imagination and my spirit. I never get tired of it.

Salamanca Tree Hiddle loves her farm life in Bybanks, Kentucky; she loves the swimming hole and the trees, the cozy house and the animals. She most definitely does not like it when her father uproots her to move to Ohio, where their next-door neighbor is a woman Sal's dad is a little too friendly with. Several years earlier, Sal's mother left their family and shattered everything, and Sal still isn't healed.

But everything is destined to change during one wild school year in Sal's new home.

The novel is told through a series of stories about her time in Ohio that Sal relates to her two eccentric show more grandparents, during a roadtrip they are taking to find her mother in time for her birthday. Through those tales, Sal tells Gram and Gramps about her time in Ohio; strange and paranoid girl-next-door Phoebe, who has problems with her own family and believes in lunatics; wild and wonderful English teacher Mr. Birkway and the journals he has them write; unusual Ben Finney, who draws cartoons and seems to have a soul that mirrors Sal's; the life lesson messages that mysteriously appear on her doorstep; and finally, the truth about her mother's disappearance. And between her time in Ohio and the fateful trip with her grandparents, Sal's life will have changed forever.

In this profound, quirky, and multilayered story of love, loss, acceptance, family, poetry, and discovery, many stories weave together to become one; the story of people learning how to walk two moons in one another's shoes. It never fails to awe me. show less