Walk Two Moons

Written 2.10.06 - Reader response to Walk Two Moons by Sharon Creech

Prologue:
I read this over xmas break. i like it a lot. there are a few twists and the narrator tells one hell of a story. i always like to re-read things because i can catch things that i didn't on the first run. i especially like to point out foreshadowing

3. "Hidden behind the wall was a brick fireplace. the reason that phoebe's sotry reminds me of that plaster wall and the hidden fireplace is that beneath phoebe's story was another one. mine." i love fragments for emphasis. also. you can already tell this story is going to kick ass because she's challenging the reader to find and figure out her story. layers. onions have layers; ogres have layers! Indians are GREAT at telling stories. they have one of the richest oral traditions in the world. some of the stories take weeks to tell!

39. my grama used baby powder too, but it was a different smell than the johnson and johnson's brand. her bathroom was saturated with the aroma. she would let me use it after i would take a bath at her house. she kept it in an oval, cardboard container. it had scrawling ivy on the outside side. it had a clear plastic lid and a powder puff with a pink bow on it.

i absolutely adore mary lou finney. she says a lot of names for Christ. it's entertaining.

56. she kind of sets the reader up to believe that her mother just abandoned her family as opposed to searching for herself.

57. an Oneida Indian man once told me the origin of the word Indian came from those who first discovered america- explorers from spain called the natives, "en Dios" or "of God." I agree- Indian sounds better.

59. separation anxiety

60. (( (( two moons. didn't notice that before. Champion worrier. how does one achieve that award? oddly, i know exactly what she means.

63. aww. puppy love.

Ok. I'm at jenn's java right now trying to freaking read this. it's so damn loud in here i want my other headphones that completely cancel out sound around me- the kind that i take on airplanes with me. oh well.

65. "She's in Idaho. Lewiston Idaho."

66. Thumpingly

70. I really love her grandparents.

80. "I thought he might have a few squirrels in the attic of his brain." another exciting, inspirational English teacher. why is it always the English teachers? cause we KICK ASS. we get down in there and describe the dirt under your fingernails and teach you how to do it. we're the crazy mofos who love to write and read and spout good poetry. we show you how to suck the marrow out of life.

81. I knew there was a reason I liked mary lou finney. mary lou is also my grama's name.

86. reference to Poe. love it when contemporary authors do that,.

89/90. that's how i acted when i found out my dad had a new girlfriend after my mother. i was far less cordial, however. i wanted nothing to do with her. it took me about 3 months to get used to her.

92. that's what's under her floorboards back at her old house. missed that last time.

97. so sweet i'm gonna cry.

103. ACK 13. the magical age. if there's one single age in which everything goes to Hell, it's gotta be 13.

110. see underlines.

116. an excitememnt- a passion- for words and stories.

129. this is an awesome exercise. I'm gonna steal it!

I'm seeing a lot of foreshadowing- especially in how she describes Mrs. winterbottom. i think this would be an excellent book to use for an intro to doppleganger-like characters, because phoebe and her mother mirror sal and her mother. i still love the way she tells a story.

"It's not our marriage bed, but it'll do." how sweet is that.

my mom almost left us once to go back down to illinois to be with her family. i wrote a poem about it. it was right around my 15th birthday.

132-33. "My mother is missing and my father hands me a dictionary." I love that. she's beginning to miss her- you don't really know what you have until it's gone. "I was uneasy because everything that happened at Phoebe's that morning reminded me of when my mother left."

134. "What I really meant was, 'how can she not come back to me? she loves me."

137. fishing in the air.

141. "A person isn't a bird. you can't cage a person."

153. "Sometimes you know in your heart you love someone, but you have to go away before your head can figure it out." how true is that.

166. you could really have a field day with this book if you tried to psychoanalyze it.

181. YA. authors always seem to reference other authors and works. lemony snicket has them all over the place. i love this. whether its through the English teacher or just some strange reference- it gets the hamster running inside those heads.

183. "Phoebe was taking some action, and i admired her for it. I wished i had taken some action when my mother left." DOPPELGANGER

188. "Mom loves me, and she would not leave me without explanation." RIGHT. tell that to my dad. i've been waiting 4 years for an explanation.

189. "I was drawn to her... she was like another version of me." DOPPELGANGER.

194. "She might love you and still not have been able to explain." you can really tell that sal's dealt with this before. she's very calm and cautious about it with phoebe.

i didnt get an explanation, and i don't think he loves me at all.

196. "This was not a game. it was a necessary, crucial thing to do. If i did not have these things and remember these occasitons, then she might disappear forever." this is true. i did this with my Grampa.

I love this. it confronts the "feel good, save the world" theme of so many other YA books. "What if everyone visualized himself winning the race?"

198. "We never know the worth of water until the well is dry." that's an interesting way to put it.

202. WHAT is it with people wanting to read journals of other people? it's none of their DAMN business!

211. gotta love this honesty. I think that teachers should really READ their students' journals.... not just check them off for credit. i think they'd be surprised, shocked, and possibly educated about certain things.

212. MAYBE THE WOODS ARE JUST WOODS.

213. This is an excellent exercise to prove a point.

214. "Isn't it interesting to find both? Isn't it interesting to disvoer that snowy woods could be death and beauty and even, I suppose, sex? Wow! Literature!"

Journals can be very very very evil- that was the basis of Harry potter 2- and Harriet the spy. No one should read your journal but you (or a teacher if it's for class). people even watch what they say on blogs because they know their friends'll read it. all my journals (that i write in) stay at home where no one can go digging through them and find out what i REALLY think about people. I always get annoyed when people ask, "Did you write anything about me in there?" chances are, the answer will be, "of course, dumbass! i write about all the idiots I encounter!" I wish people would just mind their own damn business and leave my little coping mechanism alone.

221. "All those messages had invaded my brain and affected the way i looked at things."

227. lots of foreshadowing.

What the hell grade are these 2 in? it seems like they're freshmen

234. "my blood romped around as if it were percolating."

235 My initial reaction to this twist was very verbal. i thought phoebe's mom had left to "find herself," but this caught me WAY off guard.

238. "For one quick moment, we both had the same agenda."

247. Mrs. winterbottom is Chanhassen's doppelganger.

250. I forgot that mrs. partridge was the one delivering the notes.

257. Sal questions everything. this character is so human- her mind races along like mine. if... maybe. If I hadn't done this... that wouldn't have happened. If i had done that... this would have happened. we all do that.

259. Gramps.


Final Summation:
Powerful writing. Creech pulls you in with 3 fantastic stories that are delightfully entwined, entertaining, and very human. I relate very well to this book. i would certainly use it in my classroom.

amazing. simply amazing.