Walk Two Moons: A Newbery Award Winner

Salamanca "Sal" Tree Hiddle is telling a story to her Gram and Gramps. While on a road-trip trek from Ohio to Idaho, with the trees whispering for her to `hurry, rush, hurry' Sal is recounting the story of her friend, Phoebe Winterbottom and the lunatic who changed her life. But in the telling of Phoebe's tale, Sal is learning the truth of the old proverb: "Don't judge a man until you've walked two moons in his moccasins" . . . because Phoebe's story is entangled in Sal's own, and what happened when her mother left for the badlands. `Walk Two Moons' by Sharon Creech was first published in 1994, and won the Newbery Medal in 1995. It has since become an American children's classic, and for good reason. I read the last chapter of Sharon Creech's `Walk Two Moons' aboard the Number-57 tram. Lumbering towards Lonsdale Street I started to cry, and by the time I'd arrived at my North Melbourne destination I was attracting curious stares from my fellow commuters. This book wrecked me, in the best possible way. We meet Salamanca "Sal" Tree Hiddle shortly after her father has uprooted her from Bybanks, Kentucky and the last memories of her mother. Now they live in Euclid, Ohio next-door to Margaret Cadaver and her blind mother. But when the book begins Sal is at the beginning of a road-trip journey to Idaho with her Gram and Gramps. Something in the trees is compelling Sal to rush across the American heartland, to get to Idaho and her mother . . . but along the way Gram and Gramps want to be entertained. So Sal starts telling them a story. She tells them about her new life in Euclid, where she has befriended the prudish Phoebe Winterbottom, whose family is undergoing a change somewhat similar to the one Sal's little family went through not so long ago. Sal also talks about Ben Finney, who imagines a soul similar to her own and keeps trying to plant a kiss on Sal's lips. `Walk Two Moon's is a novel of beautiful equilibrium; at once terribly sad, and terribly funny. In recounting the story of Phoebe's lunatic, who brings her family crashing down, Sal paints a wonderful picture of her best friend; a young girl whose wild imagination is rivalled only by her snobbish temperance. Sal recounts Phoebe's story like a puzzle she's piecing together for her Gram and Gramps - explaining the cryptic messages that were first left on the Winterbottom porch, and then the various investigations Phoebe and Sal conducted searching for the lunatic. But Phoebe's story has a deeper meaning for Sal, who draws parallels between the Winterbottom's struggles and the events that led to her mother leaving Sal and her father behind to go on the very same Idaho road-trip Sal is currently undertaking with her grandparents. `Walk Two Moons' is glorious. For a long time it feels almost like Sal's story is a collection of vignettes as she recounts the many memories she has of her mother, the enigmatic Chanhassen Hiddle. So many things trigger memories for Sal, something as harmless as a blackberry pie holds a landmine of remembrance. But in teasing out the memories, and questioning the events that led up to her mother leaving home, Sal's story begins to take shape. I wouldn't say that `Walk Two Moons' is ever a strictly linear story - though Sal's recounting Phoebe's lunatic tale is a fairly straightforward narrative, Sal explaining her own story takes many twists and turns. She's a young woman who has gone through a lot of life changes in a very short amount of time - not least of which includes moving away from the only home she has ever known, a new shivery awareness of Ben Finney and the colossal hole her mother's leaving gouged in her heart. It often happens that to understand one component of her changing world, Sal has to go back and look at old memories with a fresh perspective. This is a rather lovely facet of childhood-into-adulthood that Creech explains at Sal's slow and steady pace. Half-way through the book, you will begin to feel a niggling of sadness. Something is on the horizon, and the same way that Sal hears trees telling her to `rush, hurry' or `slow, slow' - so too will the sadness of this book start whispering. It's a creeping kind of sadness - beautifully teased by Creech increment by increment. But there's an overarching theme in the book, concerning the Greek myth of Pandora's Box, a subject Sal's class are studying in English. By the end, tears in my eyes, I decided that `Walk Two Moons' was a literary Pandora's Box in itself - that although there was incredible sadness and pain within, the slivers of hope are the lasting effect of Creech's wonderful novel. The lessons Sal learns, her singing tree, blackberry kisses, the shivery feeling Ben ignites and Phoebe's lunatic are all so beautifully hopeful that the sadness, though sharp, does not prevail - hope does.

So I bought this book as "new" but it seems like someone was reading this then decided to stop and sell it or give it to a thrift store. I even smelled the book from just opening it and I know this was a grandma's book that they gave me. All I have to say it adds character to the book it made me giggle actually. My elementary School made us read this book and I always wanted my own book and getting this book was fun and precious to me.

What an inspiring story. Filled with the love of mothers, fathers and a set of very special grandparents, Salamanca(Sal) Tree Hiddle's story is about growing up. Sal is thirteen and her mother has left their Kentucky farm to see a relative in Ohio, but she never comes back. Sal's father moves to Ohio where Sal meets Phoebe Winterbottom(what wonderful names the author comes up with), a girl who's mother soon leaves her family mysteriously. In the present day, Sal's wonderfully excentric grandparents take Sal on a car ride to retrace the steps her mother took on her bus ride to Ohio. Sal feels the need to be in Idaho(where her mother was headed), by her mother's birthday. While on the seven day car ride, Sal tells her grandparents about her friend Phoebe and how her mother had disappeared. Side by side, the two threads of both Sal's present life and Phoebe's past life, intertwin, and Sal learns some hard truths about life in general. While it may seem to be a simple story, the depth with which Sharon Creech writes gives this story many layers and much wisdom. There are two many wonderful passages to quote, but I'd give this book to any child no matter what the age, and any adult because it's just so readable. What I really enjoyed were the references to trees. The author uses them the family and how they nourish us, and love us unconditionally, and most especially how they endure. Sal's life is an echo of what it's like to be in the netherlands between a child and an adult reminding me of how embarrassing it was to be that age. Of course when you're going through it, you're certain that everyone else has things figured out which is why books like this are so important; they show us that everyone is feeling as confused and out of sorts as we are. This book deserves it's Newbery Award for sure. It's the kind of book where the characters live on in your mind for a life time.

I liked Ruby Holler better but still rank this one up there at 4*. Loved its quirky characters with their strange names and behaviors. The storyline was engaging and entertaining. I am finding that I really enjoy reading Freddy's books. The novel is told through the eyes of 13 year old Salamanca Tree Hiddle or Sal by most of her friends and family. Through most of the novel Sal is on a road trip with her grandparents to visit her Mom on her birthday. Throughout the trip she tells them stories about her friend Pheone Winterbottom.

Salamanca Tree Hiddle "Sal" is a 13 year old girl who's whole world was collapsing. After her mother left on a trip to Idaho and never returned, her and her father moved from the rural Kentucky farm that she grew up on into a tiny suburban house in Ohio: just down the road from her father's new "friend" the widowed Mrs. Cadaver. Just over a year after the move Gram and Gramps are taking Sal on a cross country trip to see her mother in Idaho. Free spirited and aloof her Grandparents are not in as big of a hurry as her to reach their destination; instead insisting on stopping, sight seeing and at times going off the beaten path. While driving they suggest that Sal tell them a story to help pass the time. So she reminisces about a girl she befriended after the move named Phoebe and her very "respectable" family. Telling the story of Phoebe's "lunatic", the mysterious notes left on her porch, and her belief that the next door neighbor Mrs. Cadaver had chopped up her husband and buried him in the backyard (possibly with the help of their English teacher). After Phoebe's mother suddenly leaves with nothing but a vague note Sal and Phoebe team up to find out what happened; could she have been kidnapped or murdered? Was is Mrs. Cadaver (you know that means dead body right)? As they travel cross country on the the same path Sal's mother had taken and Phoebes story unfolds it is apparent how even though they are very different Phoebe's story parallels Sal's, and Gloria's (but that's a story for another time). This books dives deep into empathy, family, love and loss. It also has very nice nature, American Indian, and travel tones. It's left me with so many emotions that upon completing it I'm both happy and sad at the same time. I definitely recommend this to anyone middle school +

Classic that should be a must read for every student. If your son/daughter hasn't read this, make sure they do. The surprise ending is worth it!

As I read this book, I was amazed at the twists and turns of the plot, experiencing delight and sorrow. When I first read it years ago, both Salamanca's journey from Ohio to Idaho and the tale she wove for her grandparents were "present" for me. Now, years later, what I remember very vividly is the main plot (Sal's trip to Idaho to visit her missing mother), and I don't remember the details of the Phoebe story at all. This doesn't mean that the interweaving of the two tales (which are, really, one story) doesn't work: it just means that the main story is very powerful. Sal is thirteen years old. Her mother is "missing." Her father intends to marry somebody Sal does a very good job of ignoring and rejecting. Against her wishes, Sal has been moved from the South to a suburb of Cleveland, Ohio. Creech has done an excellent job of creating a character standing on a threshold between childhood and adulthood. Some choose to not go through that door, and you can see the strong pull of the first world on Sal. Ultimately, though, she steps across the threshold, taking the reader with her. Sal is a character very worth knowing, and though the book deals with serious subjects, it is also full of many different kinds of humor. A worthy winner of the Newbery Medal.

This is a wonderful story looking at grown ups and their issues thru the lens of a 13 year old girl. Her mother left her and her father. So she embarks on a trip with her grandparents to see her mother in Idaho. On the way she tells her grandparents (who I love) about her friend Phoebe and her family issues. So we get a story within a story. On all levels this is thought provoking and insightful. I purchased this because I am raising my grandson. And from the reviews it sounded like something that might help him understand his own family issues in a constructive way. His parents both went to jail and he has been in my care ever since. It's not easy for a child to understand why grown ups do what they do and make choices that cause problems for the children involved. So that is why I bought this and it did deliver. At first my boy (8 yrs old) thought it was dull but he was interested enough to want to continue. At first things are mysterious and uncertain and we had to listen for a while to get a grip on the people and the issues in the story. Once the story got going it was more engaging and we were both glued to it. This would be a great story for any young teen even if there are not family issues to be concerned about. We get to see everything thru Salamonca's eyes which is refreshing.

In few words, this had lots of potential to be a great novel, but it went to waste when the writer decided to focus on Phoebe, the most bland, annoying, uninteresting kind of character ever to be written. Phoebe is a spoiled brat that fails way too harshly into seeing her mother's struggle, which is okay and completely realistic, but it really got annoying when she started insisting on a kidnapping: the process of denial this kid went through was so unrealistic and forced it really made me feel like punching this character in the face multiple times... Actually, what I really found unreal was the fact no one punched Phoebe in the face, multiple times. Only reason I gave it three stars instead of one is because there are some real good passages among the eternally blandness of the narrative, such as the boy pretending he could read hands just so he could be able to hold Sal's hand.

El libro es una pasada. Altamente recomendable. It is beautiful story with important messages. Highly recommended. Muchas gracias un saludo

We loved this book. My 13 year old son loves how Sharon Creech weaves the same characters and places through many of her books.

This is a great book. It's strange and funny. I love Salamanca's grandparents. They're so funny, full of life despite their old age. The writing is very entertaining throughout.

I originally read this book when I was a teenager, but re-ordered it as an adult and re-read it. It’s a great coming of age story, with a couple of twists and turns in it that I didn’t expect and couldn’t remember from the last time I read it. Will read it again.