Walk Two Moons by Sharon Creech

Facing our problems and getting to the root of things is never easy. Everyone has experienced a time when they were sure they couldn't possibly face what was coming next. Was it knowing you got a poor test grade because you failed to study? Was it a punishment because you disobeyed your parents? Or was it something serious, like facing the grim reality that someone in your life will not be coming back anymore?

"During the week before we left, the sound of the wind was hurry, hurry, hurry and at night even the silent darkness whispered rush, rush, rush. I did not think we could ever leave, and yet I did not want to leave. I did not really expect to survive the trip. But I had to go and I would go...I believed that if there was any chance to bring my mother back home, it would happen on her birthday."

And so begins the mission for thirteen year old Salamanca Tree Hiddle, better known as Sal. She needs to reach Idaho before her mother's birthday. Sal knows this might be her only chance to get her to come home, so she hits the road with her grandparents, in hopes of making it to Lewiston in time. On the way, Sal starts to tell a tale of her friend Phoebe Winterbottom and what happened when Phoebe's mother disappeared. As the trip travels through state parks and monuments, Sal's story of Phoebe becomes more of her own journey towards dealing with her grief and pain. The reader begins to see that there is more than one way to lose a mother. With the help of her grandparents, Sal is able to finish the difficult task of facing her own story, one that is filled with the question of whether or not her mother will return.

Winner of the 1995 Newbery Award, Sharon Creech takes us on a journey through grief, love and acceptance for the different paths life can bring us down. The Newbery committee has called Walk Two Moons a "book packed with humor and affection and is an odyssey of unexpected twists and surprising conclusions." Read more to find out how Sal will fare by the end of her trip and what it is really like to walk two moons in someone else's moccasins.

Sharon Creech www.sharoncreech.com