Walk With This Touching Story!

Walk Two Moons by Sharon Creech is a entertaining, fast moving book full of twists, surprises, laughs and emotion. It is one of those stories that you will remember. Its plot is very original. Salamanca Tree Hiddle, a 13-year old Native American girl, is the narrator. The story is three fold. Sal begins in the present and then mentions her trip to Idaho, which is where the story takes off from there. Her trip to Idaho was taken with her grandparents, and on the way she entertains them by recounting her experience with a girl named Phoebe, who's mother disappeared after mysterious notes arrived on her porch. Phoebe is a very emotional girl and adds a lot of laughs to the story. As the mystery unfolds with Phoebe, Sal and her grandparents are making their way across the country, retracing Sal's mother's path. Behind Phoebe's story is Sal's. Sal is going to find her mother, who one day left home, yet never returned. Sal thinks she can bring her mother home if she gets to Idaho in time for her mother's birthday, but along the way she is growing more fully aware of what really happened to her mother and why it is impossible for her to come back home.
Sal and her amusing grandparents get into some trouble along the way, but Sal tries to keep them grounded as they visit the various States, including one of their favorite- The Badlands in South Dakota.
There are funny moments and there are tender moments. The book is rich in surprises and layered with various stories. Sal relates them with detail. Creech makes us sympathize with Sal, and as we travel down her path we feel her pain more deeply. She is a likeable, realistic character.
It would be ruining the book to tell anymore of the plot. Reading Walk Two Moons out loud is a great idea, such as to a class(4th, 5th grades). They will be begging for more; I know this from experience. Sharon Creech has done a fine job and her Newbery medal was well deserved.