Walk Two Moons

Story

Salamanca Tree Hiddle, or Sal for short, is taking a road trip across America with her grandparents. Along the way, she tells us a story about her intense, imaginative friend Phoebe Winterbottom, Phoebe’s missing mother, and a man they called ‘the lunatic.’ But underneath her tall tales, Sal is also trying to solve another mystery – that of her own disappearing mother…

Why we chose it

A beautifully told story about grief, loss and separation.

Where it came from

Sharon Creech (1945 – present) is an American children’s author. When she was young, her family often visited her cousins in Quincy, Kentucky, which found its way into her books as the town of Bybanks in Walk Two Moons. She originally intended the novel as a follow up to her book Absolutely Normal Chaos, but the idea was changed once she began writing. One day, she discovered a fortune cookie message at the bottom of her bag: ‘Don’t judge a man until you’ve walked two moons in his moccasins.’ That message inspired the journey that Sal takes, and her being a small part Native American.

Where it went next

Walk Two Moons won lots of awards upon its publication, including the Newbery Medal (1995), the UK Children’s Book Award (1995), and the UK Reading Association Award (1995). Sharon Creech has said that winning the Newbery Medal changed her life, as it gave her more freedom to write, and she no longer had to worry about whether she would be published again. It also gave her public speaking experience and the chance to travel to conferences and schools all over the world.

Associated stories

Creech has written countless other children’s books, including Absolutely Normal Chaos (1995), Bloomability (1998), The Wanderer (2000), which was a Newbery Honour book in 2001, and Ruby Holler (2001), which received the 2002 Carnegie Medal. Heartbeat (2004) was a finalist in the Junior Division of the Young Reader’s Choice awards. She has also written several pictures books for younger children.