Walk Two Moons
4th Quarter Independent Reading Assignment
By: Abbie Derrick
Summary:
This book is about a girl named Salmanca, or Sal, who takes a trip with her grandparents to the place where her mother is buried. Sal tells her grandparents a story while on the road about her friend named Phoebe from Ohio. While telling these stories Sal mixes in memories of her own mother. Sal has a difficult time leaving her farm in Kentucky and Mrs. Cadaver isn't making it easier. Sal continues to have odd feelings about Mrs. Cadaver until she starts to understand she isn't the worst person ever. Sal goes to drive to her mother's grave before her birthday because her grandparents were at the hospital. Sal encounters more trouble when the police pull her over. They hear her sad story and take her to her mother's grave. Sal then becomes overwhelmed to find out her grandmother died. Sal finally started to heal and moved back to her farm with her father.
How this book inspired me:
This book inspired me because of Sal's great hopes to return to her mother's grave before her birthday. Sal committed to being there and she faced all the obstacles in her way with such dignity and overcame them all. Also, this book touched me when Sal was in the car telling her grandparents stories about Phoebe, yet she really was including her own memories about her mother. This was really sad for the reason on Sal's behalf, but really touching to know that Sal still cared and tried so hard to make everything work.
Memorable Passages:
1) "On and on we go. We walk in everybody's moccasins, and we have discovered some interesting things that way. 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"(Creech 276).
2) "It seems to me that we can't explain all the truly awful things in the world like war and murder and brain tumors, 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"(Creech 277).
Importance:
1) The importance of this first quote is it is when Sal realizes that her whole trip to visit her mother's grave on her birthday was to open her eyes, and step in her mother's moccasins, and understand her. To fully understand her reasons for leaving, and reasons of dying.
2) The importance of this second quote is it is Sal saying that she can't look at her mother and grandma's death, or her father and Margaret Cadaver's relationship as things like war and disease that can't be solved, but to instead look at them in a different way, in a different pair of moccasins, and see the good in them, something that will get better. This quote shows Sal's bravery.
Why you should read this book:
This book inspired me in many ways through Sal's bravery, the stories she told, and her life experiences. This book taught me to look at things in the way they help you, not the way they hurt you. You should read this book if you want to be inspired in this way. If you want to make that feeling that your math test is the worst thing in the world turn into the feeling that the math test will make you smarter and extend your knowledge. Walk Two Moons is a good book to sit down, enjoy, and learn lessons from Salmanca Tree Hiddle.