Walk Two Moons by Sharon Creech – Summary & Review

There are some books that just touch you deeply; their words intermix in such beautiful ways, and they help you see the world in a new way. 

This is one of those books. One of those books that will capture your soul and wrap its arms around you. One of those books that will cause you to feel emotions so heavily and so deeply – but I promise it will be worth it.

Walk Two Moons is purely incredible. Absolutely incredible. You MUST read this book. Expect to cry a thousand tears, BUT you must allow the story to fill your veins and your mind. It is just so beautifully written. 

Summary & My Thoughts: Spoilers Alert

Her name is Salamanca Tree Hiddle. She is a sassy, yet sometimes shy young girl. “What I have since realized is that if people expect you to be brave, sometimes you pretend that you are, even when you are frightened down to your very bones.” (14)

Her father forces her to move to Euclid, Ohio because her mother has left their home for quite some time, and the novel’s plot is based on this experience.

Her grandparents, Grams and Gramps, decide that they will take a road trip to Lewiston, Idado, to see her mother. On the way, she tells them a captivating story about a friend she meets in the new town named Phoebe.

Throughout the story, she has cute little quips and anecdotes about her quirky new friend. At one point, she introduces her to a neighbor, Mrs. Partridge. Mrs. Partridge says, “Who is that with you? What’s that on her face?” She wriggled her crooked little fingers at Phoebe. “Just as I thought. It’s two eyes, nose, and a mouth.” (19) The best part is finding out later that the woman is blind! 

“When my mother left for Lewiston, Idaho, that April, my first thoughts were, “’How could she do that? How could she leave me?’ As the days went on, many things were harder and sadder, but some things were strangely easier. When my mother had been there, I was like a mirror. If she was happy, I was happy. If she was sad, I was sad. For the first few days after she left, I felt numb, non-feeling. I didn’t know how to feel. I would find myself looking around for her, to see what I might want to feel.” (38) This is a great example of what it feels like to be an empathetic person…one who feels the emotions and energy of those around her.

Salamanca and her Grams have a sweet relationship that reminds me of my grandmother and I. When your grandmother loves you just the way you are, wants to make you smile, and genuinely cares for you, it brings sunshine and light to your world. This is how my grandmother was and this is how Sal’s grandmother is.

Gram “leaned over to kiss me, [and] I could smell the baby powder she always used. That smell made me feel sad, but I didn’t know why.” (39) I love how this book incorporates moments and thoughts like this because it’s a great example of how smells impact our memories and cause us to re-live them. Since Sal feels sadness over this smell, I can only imagine it brings her back to when she was a child and was feeling all of the love from her mother.

The author continues to use these types of moments and foreshadowing clues to make you stop and think; there were many times I put the novel down and just sat in silence, pondering & digesting the words for deeper meaning.

While at Phoebe’s house, a message is left on the doorstep: Don’t judge a man until you’ve walked two moons in his moccasins. (51) The messages left by an unknown person help the girls, Sal & Phoebe, to see life in a new way; this particular note reminds Sal to be empathetic to others, especially those who are experiencing something that you have lived through already (more coming on that…)

Grams offers advice to Sal as well, every so often: “Being a mother is like trying to hold a wolf by the ears,” Gram said. “If you have three or four—or more—chickabiddies, you’re dancing on a hot griddle all the time. You don’t have time to think about anything else. And if you’ve only got one or two, it’s almost harder. You have room left over—empty spaces that you think you’ve got to fill up.” (53) Do you think this is true? Currently, I have one daughter who takes up a lot of my time and I LOVE to stay busy…but I always have. Do you think that it’s possible to still have time for yourself after two children? I’m not so sure about that!

Sal befriends a few more people in the town and one friend’s brother Ben keeps making unusual advances. The first time he meets her, he kisses her on the collarbone without her permission. Then, while walking around a store, Salamanca falls and Ben catches her. “He put his arms around my waist and held onto me, even after it was obvious that I was not going to fall…. ‘Let go,’ I said, but he didn’t let go. I had an odd sensation, as a little creature was crawling up my spine.” (63)

Later, he then ask her if she flinches every time someone touches her. This thought has not previously crossed her mind. She realizes it is a new thing, especially after thinking about how her father doesn’t hug her as much anymore. “Had I been drawing away from my own mother? Did she have empty spaces left over? Was that why she left?” (66-67)

Later, she asks her dad what it meant if someone flinches every time they are touched. He hugs her, but she doesn’t flinch. As she was telling this part of the story to her Gram and Gramps, Grams turns all the way around, takes her hand and kisses it. Gramps said, “give her one for me too.” (71)

As the story continues to unfold about her missing mother, Sal gives insight into her constant feelings of blame. “I wondered why it was so easy for me to see that Phoebe’s mother was worried and miserable, but Phoebe couldn’t see it – or if she could, she was ignoring it. Maybe she didn’t want to notice. Maybe it was too frightening a thing. I wondered if this was how it had been with my mother. Were there things I didn’t notice?” (88)

Phoebe’s mother acts so strangely, often. She will be crying at intermittent moments, and she’s consistently doing things for her family, even though they are not appreciative. She even goes as far as to ask her daughter Prudence, “Do you think I lead a tiny life?” (88) One time, Salamanca and Phoebe come home to find her red faced with a plate full of burned brownies. She offers them to the girls but Phoebe adamantly refuses and makes fun of them being burnt and how fat she is. (103) This moment reminds Salamanca of her last interaction with her mother before she left. Her mother had asked her several times throughout the day to go for a walk with her. She finally answered with, “No! I don’t want to go. Why do you keep asking me?” She regrets that this is the last thing she said and it’s the last memory her mother as of her. (104)

The reason her mother left reminds me of how you feel when you need to escape…just for a little while. Not because you don’t love those in your life, but rather because you have to figure out who you are and what you want out of life. This particular scene really resonated with me and how I felt at times. These feelings her mother expresses very closely resemble Post Postpartum, especially when we learn that her mother suffered a still birth shortly before she left.

“She said she had to leave in order to clear her head, and clear her heart of all the bad things. She needed to learn about what she was… I can’t think. All I see here is what I am not. I am not brave. I am not good.” (110)

Oddly enough, Phoebe’s mom leaves just like Salamanca’s mother did—in a flash, and without warning.  In the morning, Phoebe and Prudence start to notice all of the things that their mother had done for them and what she had left behind. Salamanca is reminded of how it felt when her own mother left, “I was uneasy because everything that happened at Phoebe’s that morning reminded me of when my mother left. For weeks, my father and I fumbled around like ducks in a fit. Nothing was where it was supposed to be. The house took on a life of its own, hatching piles of dishes and laundry and newspapers and dust.” (133)

Sal tries to comfort Phoebe, in a way that she understands – “Sal, your mother went because she wanted to go.” Phoebe says, “We should have stopped her.” Sal responds, “A person isn’t a bird. You can’t cage a person.” (141) So true – each and every person must learn on their own and not be held back; they have to be able to spread their wings and learn their place in the world (Think of Eat, Pray, Love: https://amzn.to/3b0nHBN)

“I cannot imagine why she had chosen Idaho. I thought perhaps she had opened an atlas and pointed the finger at any old spot, but later I learned that she had a cousin in Lewiston, Idaho. ‘I haven’t seen her for 15 years, and that’s good because she’ll tell me what I’m really like… Before I was a wife and a mother.” (143) How often these thoughts float through the minds of those who feel like there’s something more to life than the life they have built. There’s this feeling of something missing or life just doesn’t feel right.

I’m reminded of the Reba song:

She thought she’d done some living
But now she’s just wonderin’
What she’s living for
Now she’s feeling that there’s something more

Is there life out there
So much she hasn’t done
Is there life beyond
Her family and her home
She’s done what she should
Should she do what she dares
She doesn’t want to leave
She’s just wonderin
Is there life out there

She’s always lived for tomorrow
She’s never learned how
To live for today
She’s dyin’ to try something foolish
Do something crazy
Or just get away
Something for herself for a change

One night, on their road trip, Salamanca dreams she was floating down a river, looking up at the sky. “There was a sudden popping sound and then we were up in the sky. Momma looked all around and said, ‘We can’t be dead. We were alive just a minute ago.” (154) I feel this is foreshadowing in regards to her mother – I feel that when they get to Idaho, her mother will either be dead or unable to be found.  I hope I’m wrong. 

The road trip has now led them to the Black Hills in South Dakota, which is considered a Sioux Holy Land. Near this land is Mount Rushmore. “It was fine seeing the presidents, I’ve got nothing against the presidents, but you’d think the Sioux would be mighty sad to have those white faces carved into their sacred hill… I wondered why whoever carved them couldn’t have put a couple Indians up there too.” (179)

During the time that she has told the story about Phoebe to her Grams and Gramps, Grams gets so excited to hear what happens next.  She asks a lot of questions and fishes for more information. It reminds me of my own grandmother and how she always wanted me to read her stories before bed; even though she always fell asleep, it was our nightly ritual. 

On a mission to find Phoebe’s mother, Sal and Phoebe decide to track down the boy who left notes on Phoebe’s door step. What they find truly made my mouth DROP open. “On the bench was Phoebe’s mother, and she was kissing the lunatic.” (235) Whattttttt?!  On the cheek, but STILL! 

The lunatic was a boy who showed up at Phoebe’s house one day asking where her mother was. I didn’t find him to be a particularly important character at first, but I guess he was!

At that moment, Sal runs away and goes to find Ben. How could the author make us wait to find out what happened with Phoebe’s mom?! Apparently, Phoebe just watched them instead of approaching them. Later, when they arrive home, they discover that her mom is coming home tomorrow. 

For some strange reason, I get the feeling that the lunatic – Mike – is actually Mrs. Winterbottom’s son that she gave up for adoption.  I don’t know why I am getting this vibe, but then again, the author’s foreshadowing clues are pretty informative.

Before she comes home, Mr. Winterbottom and Phoebe’s sister thoroughly clean the house. However, her father says, “Maybe it looks too good. Your mother will think we can function without her.” (243)

And just like I suspected, on page 248, Mrs. Winterbottom admits that he is her son. Apparently she had him before she ever met her husband, but never told him because she thought it would make her look un-respectable. 

Sal wishes she wasn’t there to witness the moment she tells her family this huge secret. “I was wishing I was invisible. Outside, the leaves were falling to the ground, and I was infinitely sad, sad down to my bones. I was sad for Phoebe and her parents and Prudence and Mike, sad for the leaves that were dying, and sad for myself, for something I had lost.” (249) Oh how I wish her own mother would come back too…how beautiful that would be. 

Mr. Winterbottom then did and said the most respectable and noble thing EVER. “He went over to Mike, shook his hand and said, ‘I did always think a son would be a nice addition to this family.’” (249)

Previously in the novel, Grams gets bitten by a snake and has a hospital stay. It is during this time that she develops a bit of a raspy voice. When they are finally entering Idaho, Gram spoke and “you could hear the rattle in her chest.” (251) This reminded me of what my grandmother experienced at the end of her life — the death rattle. It usually occurs when a person is close to death. This worries me for Grams….is she okay?! Is this foreshadowing about her health?

When they arrive in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, they discover Grams had a stroke. Gramps stays with her through all of the tests, but an intern tries to dissuade him. “She won’t know whether you’re here or not.” He responds, “Sonny, I’ve been by her side for fifty-one years…I’m holding onto her hand, see? If you want me to let go, you’ll have to chop my hand off.” (256)

Since Gram and Gramps are staying at the hospital, Gramps gives Sal the keys and tells her to be careful. He knew what she needed to do. She makes the 100 mile trek through the curvy roads of the mountain, to an overlook near Lewiston. “I wondered how many people had abanonded their cars at this point and walked the remaining miles down.” (261-262). She meets a man at this point who tells her about a bus that went off the road and over the railing into the trees. Only one person survived. 

Now, I am reminded of a quote said by her Grams in the very beginning of the novel that was the reason for the road trip, “Gram and Gramps wanted to see Momma, who was resting peacefully in Lewiston, Idado. Gram and Gramps knew that I wanted to see Momma, but that I was afraid to.” (5)

At this moment, we have come to the pinnacle of the story…where all of the tears flow so fully and without refrain. “It was a pleasant place. The Snake River curved behind this section, and tall, full-leaved trees grew here and there across the lawn. The sheriff parked the car and lead me up a path toward the river, and there, on a little hill overlooking the river in the valley, was my mother’s grave…it was only then, when I saw the stone and her name…that I knew, by myself and for myself, that she was not coming back. I asked if I could sit there for a little while, because I wanted to memorize the place. I wanted to memorize the grass and the trees, the smells and the sounds.” (267-268)

And this is when I got incredibly emotional and couldn’t contain my tears. “In the midst of the steel morning, with only the sound of the river gurgling by, I heard a bird. It was singing a bird song, a true, sweet bird song. I looked all around and then up into the Willow that leaned toward the river. The bird sound came from the top of the Willow and I did not want to look too closely, because I wanted it to be the tree that was singing. I kissed the Willow. ‘Happy Birthday.’” (268) She had made it for her mother’s birthday…and learned the truth of what had happened.

We learn that the bus that fell off the side of the cliff, killed her mother, and all passengers, except for one. The one survivor of the bus crash was Mrs. Cadaver, her father’s friend. She was sitting next to Sal’s mother on the bus ride. When Sal’s father came to bury his wife, he met this woman and they formed a strong bond; they were able to talk for hours about her last moments on the bus with his wife. When Sal questioned her about their relationship, she said, “He’s holding on to me because I was with your mother and held her hand in her last moments. Your father isn’t ready to love anyone else yet. Your mother was one of a kind.” (271-272)

As if my tears couldn’t fall anymore, the story became even more saddened and deep with loss. When Sal arrives back at the hospital to see her grandparents, she is given a note her Gramps left. He wrote, “I am sorry to say that our gooseberry died at three o’clock this morning.” (272) Oh, my cheeks are so flooded with tears and angst. I’m so incredibly heartbroken. 

“One day I realized that our whole trip out to Lewiston had been a gift from Gram and Gramps to me. They were giving me a chance to walk in my mother’s moccasins – to see what she had seen and feel what she might have felt on her last trip… it seems to me that we can’t explain all the truly awful things in the world…and we can’t fix these things, so we look at the frightening things that are closer to us and we magnify them until they burst open. Inside is something that we can manage, something that isn’t as awful as it had at first seemed. It is a relief to discover that although there might be axe murderers and kidnappers in the world, most people seem a lot like us: sometimes afraid and sometimes brave, sometimes cruel and sometimes kind.” (276-277)

Beautiful. Just absolutely beautiful. I was so enthralled, engaged, and captivated by this story. What an incredible book. 

I give this book a 5/5 stars and I urge you to discover its story.

Fall in love with this book as much as I did, by grabbing a copy for yourself!!!

Find your copy of the book at my Bookshop or on Amazon!