Most people have goals in their lives. Some like to run a marathon, others want to become high school football players, someone else wants to get into college, and some are just looking for a hobby. Goals range from small and simple ones like learning how to play the trumpet or quilting to bigger life-changing ones such as becoming an actor or singer. There is one thing that all goals have in common—someone's determination to reach them.
Newbery Honor-winning author Sharon Creech wrote a novel called Walk Two Moons which was published in 1994. In the novel, Sal and Phoebe, the main characters, are forced by their parents to go on a 48-hour driving trip to Idaho without them. They end up on this road trip with only each other as company. Although they disagree at first, as time passes they become closer and learn that they can be best friends.
Sal, a nine-year-old, is mischievous, impulsive and restless. He does not like staying in one place for very long. He and Phoebe, who is four-years-old and is the main character of this novel, are opposites in many ways. Sal enjoys throwing rocks at trees and climbing on fences while Phoebe likes to draw and take naps. When they go off on their trip, they find themselves without anyone to talk to so they decide that the only person they can talk to is each other. They start a diary after their parents leave them alone at the lake because they have been forced by them to go on an adventure that neither one of them wanted to do. In this diary, they share what is going on with each other as well as the adventures they are having.
The novel takes place in July and August. Sal and Phoebe plan to go up to the mountains without telling anyone because their parents have just told them that they do not have to go on that trip anymore. That night, when Sal asks Phoebe if she would like to be his friend, Phoebe does not want to be his friend but she does want him to play football with her at school the next day. Phoebe realizes that Sal is determined to play football with her so she tries to go along.
When they get home from the camping trip, their mother is there waiting to pick them up. She tells them that they have been asked to go on another trip because they have not done their chores and Phoebe's drawing was pushed down a hill. When Sal finds out that the drawing has been pushed down a hill, he wants to pick it up but his mother says no because she will make him clean her car again and she would rather not do this chore twice in one day.
Sal and Phoebe do not want to go on the trip but they have no choice because their parents are planning to leave in a few hours. Their parents warn them that they better behave themselves while they are away because if they do not, there will be punishment. When Sal and Phoebe arrive at the lake, there is a dog that has been left behind with their grandparents so Sal and Phoebe decide to name it 'Moons.' Moons does not know how to swim so Sal decides to show him how. He gets into the lake but Phoebe does not follow him in because she is frightened of water. She watches from the shore as Sal tries his best to teach Moons how to swim.