Walk Two Moons

Walk Two Moons

by

Sharon Creech

Teachers and parents! Our Teacher Edition on Walk Two Moons makes teaching easy.
Mrs. Winterbottom is Phoebe and Prudence’s mother and Mr. Winterbottom’s wife. She’s a plain woman, with a round face and blond curls, and Sal suspects that she’s used to being ignored and unremarkable. Mrs. Winterbottom is a housewife while Phoebe and her older daughter, Prudence, are on breaks from school; during the school year, she works at a local plumbing business. She makes a point to cook low-calorie, cholesterol-free, vegetarian meals for her family—so Sal finds it odd that Mrs. Winterbottom also makes a number of pies and other sweet treats, like brownies. However, despite her efforts, her family doesn’t seem to appreciate her much—indeed, Phoebe is entirely unwilling or unable to notice that her mother frequently cries. A nervous woman, Mrs. Winterbottom is fanatical about making sure that all the doors and windows are locked, though Sal can never tell what exactly Mrs. Winterbottom is afraid of. Sal notices Mrs. Winterbottom’s anxiety and unhappiness getting more pronounced over time, especially once Phoebe starts finding the mysterious messages on the Winterbottoms’ front porch. The appearance of the lunatic also seems to disturb Mrs. Winterbottom. Not long after the lunatic appears, Mrs. Winterbottom mysteriously disappears. Though she leaves her family members notes, she doesn’t indicate where she’s gone or when she’ll be back. Convinced that her mother was kidnapped and murdered, either by the lunatic or by Margaret Cadaver, Phoebe throws herself into finding her mother. But when Phoebe and Sal finally find Mrs. Winterbottom, they’re shocked: they discover her at a college with the lunatic, Mike Bickle, kissing him on the cheek. The day after, Mrs. Winterbottom returns home with a totally new look: she’s cut her hair, wears makeup and earrings, and has stylish clothes. She reveals that Mike is her son; she had him before she met Mr. Winterbottom, gave him up for adoption, and never told Mr. Winterbottom out of fear of disappointing him. Sal implies that everything ultimately turns out okay for Mrs. Winterbottom—she and Mike are accepted back into the family.

Mrs. Winterbottom Quotes in Walk Two Moons

The Walk Two Moons quotes below are all either spoken by Mrs. Winterbottom or refer to Mrs. Winterbottom. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Judgment, Perspective, and Storytelling Theme Icon
).
Chapter 6 Quotes

From what I could gather, Mr. Winterbottom worked in an office, creating road maps. Mrs. Winterbottom baked and cleaned and did laundry and grocery shopping. I had a funny feeling that Mrs. Winterbottom did not actually like all this baking and cleaning and laundry and shopping, and I’m not quite sure why I had that feeling because if you just listened to the words she said, it sounded as if she was Mrs. Supreme Housewife.

Related Characters: Salamanca “Sal” Tree Hiddle (speaker), Momma/Chanhassen “Sugar” Hiddle, Phoebe Winterbottom, Mrs. Winterbottom, Mr. Winterbottom
Page Number: 27
Explanation and Analysis:

Just then, she came in from the back porch. My father put his arms around her and they smooched and it was all tremendously romantic, and I started to turn away, but my mother caught my arm. She pulled me to her and said to me—though it was meant for my father, I think—“See, I’m almost as good as your father!” She said it in a shy way, laughing a little. I felt betrayed, but I didn’t know why.

It is surprising all the things you remember just by eating a blackberry pie.

Related Characters: Salamanca “Sal” Tree Hiddle (speaker), Momma/Chanhassen “Sugar” Hiddle, Dad, Mrs. Winterbottom
Related Symbols: Blackberries
Page Number: 32
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 11 Quotes

Ben touched Phoebe’s arm. She flinched. “Ha,” he said. “Gotcha. You’re jumpy, too, Free Bee.”

And that, too, bothered me. I had already noticed how tense Phoebe’s whole family seemed, how tidy, how respectable, how thumpingly stiff. Was I becoming like that? Why were they like that? A couple times I had seen Phoebe’s mother try to touch Phoebe or Prudence or Mr. Winterbottom, but they all drew back from her. It was as if they had outgrown her.

Had I been drawing away from my own mother? Did she have empty spaces left over? Was that why she left?

Related Characters: Salamanca “Sal” Tree Hiddle (speaker), Momma/Chanhassen “Sugar” Hiddle, Phoebe Winterbottom, Ben Finney, Mrs. Winterbottom, Mr. Winterbottom, Prudence Winterbottom
Page Number: 62
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 14 Quotes

“She looked as if she’d been crying. Maybe something is wrong. Maybe something is bothering her.”

“Don’t you think she would say so then?”

“Maybe she’s afraid to,” I said. I wondered why it was so easy for me to see that Phoebe’s mother was worried and miserable, but Phoebe couldn’t see it—or if she could, she was ignoring it. Maybe she didn’t want to notice. Maybe it was too frightening a thing. I wondered if this was how it had been with my mother. Were there things I didn’t notice?

Related Characters: Salamanca “Sal” Tree Hiddle (speaker), Phoebe Winterbottom (speaker), Momma/Chanhassen “Sugar” Hiddle, Mrs. Winterbottom
Page Number: 81-82
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 17 Quotes

What I started doing was remembering the day before my mother left. I did not know it was to be her last day home. Several times that day, my mother asked me if I wanted to walk up in the fields with her. It was drizzling outside, and I was cleaning my desk, and I just did not feel like going. “Maybe later,” I kept saying. When she asked me for about the tenth time, I said, “No! I don’t want to go. Why do you keep asking me?” I don’t know why I did that. I didn’t mean anything by it, but that was one of the last memories she had of me, and I wished I could take it back.

Related Characters: Salamanca “Sal” Tree Hiddle (speaker), Momma/Chanhassen “Sugar” Hiddle, Phoebe Winterbottom, Mrs. Winterbottom, Prudence Winterbottom
Page Number: 97
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 22 Quotes

And just like Phoebe, who had waved her mother’s sweater in front of her father, I had brought a chicken in from the coop: Would Mom leave her favorite chicken?” I demanded. “She loves this chicken.”

What I really meant was, “How can she not come back to me? She loves me.”

Related Characters: Salamanca “Sal” Tree Hiddle (speaker), Momma/Chanhassen “Sugar” Hiddle, Dad, Phoebe Winterbottom, Mrs. Winterbottom
Page Number: 125
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 26 Quotes

It went on and on like that. I hated her that day. I didn’t care how upset she was about her mother, I really hated her, and I wanted her to leave. I wondered if this was how my father felt when I threw all those temper tantrums. Maybe he hated me for a while.

Related Characters: Salamanca “Sal” Tree Hiddle (speaker), Momma/Chanhassen “Sugar” Hiddle, Dad, Phoebe Winterbottom, Mrs. Winterbottom
Page Number: 155
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 27 Quotes

I knew Phoebe was convinced that her mother was kidnapped because it was impossible for Phoebe to imagine that her mother could leave for any other reason. I wanted to call Phoebe and say that maybe her mother had gone looking for something, maybe her mother was unhappy, maybe there was nothing Phoebe could do about it.

When I told this part to Gram and Gramps, Gramps said, “You mean it had nothing to do with Peeby?” They looked at each other. They didn’t say anything, but there was something in that look that suggested I had just said something important. For the first time, it occurred to me that maybe my mother’s leaving had nothing whatsoever to do with me. It was separate and apart. We couldn’t own our mothers.

Related Characters: Salamanca “Sal” Tree Hiddle (speaker), Gramps (speaker), Momma/Chanhassen “Sugar” Hiddle, Gram, Phoebe Winterbottom, Mrs. Margaret Cadaver, Mrs. Winterbottom, The Lunatic/Mike Bickle
Page Number: 164
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 38 Quotes

“They sat there on the bench having a gay old time. If I could toss rocks like you can toss rocks, I’d have plonked them both in the back of the head. Did you notice her hair? She’s cut it. It’s short. And do you know what else she did? In the middle of talking, she leaned over and spit on the grass. Spit! It was disgusting. And the lunatic, do you know what he did when she spit? He laughed. Then he leaned over and he spit.”

Related Characters: Phoebe Winterbottom (speaker), Salamanca “Sal” Tree Hiddle, Mrs. Winterbottom, The Lunatic/Mike Bickle
Related Symbols: Hair
Page Number: 227
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 44 Quotes

Lately, I’ve been wondering if there might be something hidden behind the fireplace, because just as the fireplace was behind the plaster wall and my mother’s story was behind Phoebe’s, I think there was a third story behind Phoebe’s and my mother’s, and that was about Gram and Gramps.

Related Characters: Salamanca “Sal” Tree Hiddle (speaker), Momma/Chanhassen “Sugar” Hiddle, Dad, Gram, Gramps, Phoebe Winterbottom, Mrs. Winterbottom
Related Symbols: The Fireplace
Page Number: 254
Explanation and Analysis:
Get the entire Walk Two Moons LitChart as a printable PDF.
Walk Two Moons PDF

Mrs. Winterbottom Quotes in Walk Two Moons

The Walk Two Moons quotes below are all either spoken by Mrs. Winterbottom or refer to Mrs. Winterbottom. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Judgment, Perspective, and Storytelling Theme Icon
).
Chapter 6 Quotes

From what I could gather, Mr. Winterbottom worked in an office, creating road maps. Mrs. Winterbottom baked and cleaned and did laundry and grocery shopping. I had a funny feeling that Mrs. Winterbottom did not actually like all this baking and cleaning and laundry and shopping, and I’m not quite sure why I had that feeling because if you just listened to the words she said, it sounded as if she was Mrs. Supreme Housewife.

Related Characters: Salamanca “Sal” Tree Hiddle (speaker), Momma/Chanhassen “Sugar” Hiddle, Phoebe Winterbottom, Mrs. Winterbottom, Mr. Winterbottom
Page Number: 27
Explanation and Analysis:

Just then, she came in from the back porch. My father put his arms around her and they smooched and it was all tremendously romantic, and I started to turn away, but my mother caught my arm. She pulled me to her and said to me—though it was meant for my father, I think—“See, I’m almost as good as your father!” She said it in a shy way, laughing a little. I felt betrayed, but I didn’t know why.

It is surprising all the things you remember just by eating a blackberry pie.

Related Characters: Salamanca “Sal” Tree Hiddle (speaker), Momma/Chanhassen “Sugar” Hiddle, Dad, Mrs. Winterbottom
Related Symbols: Blackberries
Page Number: 32
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 11 Quotes

Ben touched Phoebe’s arm. She flinched. “Ha,” he said. “Gotcha. You’re jumpy, too, Free Bee.”

And that, too, bothered me. I had already noticed how tense Phoebe’s whole family seemed, how tidy, how respectable, how thumpingly stiff. Was I becoming like that? Why were they like that? A couple times I had seen Phoebe’s mother try to touch Phoebe or Prudence or Mr. Winterbottom, but they all drew back from her. It was as if they had outgrown her.

Had I been drawing away from my own mother? Did she have empty spaces left over? Was that why she left?

Related Characters: Salamanca “Sal” Tree Hiddle (speaker), Momma/Chanhassen “Sugar” Hiddle, Phoebe Winterbottom, Ben Finney, Mrs. Winterbottom, Mr. Winterbottom, Prudence Winterbottom
Page Number: 62
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 14 Quotes

“She looked as if she’d been crying. Maybe something is wrong. Maybe something is bothering her.”

“Don’t you think she would say so then?”

“Maybe she’s afraid to,” I said. I wondered why it was so easy for me to see that Phoebe’s mother was worried and miserable, but Phoebe couldn’t see it—or if she could, she was ignoring it. Maybe she didn’t want to notice. Maybe it was too frightening a thing. I wondered if this was how it had been with my mother. Were there things I didn’t notice?

Related Characters: Salamanca “Sal” Tree Hiddle (speaker), Phoebe Winterbottom (speaker), Momma/Chanhassen “Sugar” Hiddle, Mrs. Winterbottom
Page Number: 81-82
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 17 Quotes

What I started doing was remembering the day before my mother left. I did not know it was to be her last day home. Several times that day, my mother asked me if I wanted to walk up in the fields with her. It was drizzling outside, and I was cleaning my desk, and I just did not feel like going. “Maybe later,” I kept saying. When she asked me for about the tenth time, I said, “No! I don’t want to go. Why do you keep asking me?” I don’t know why I did that. I didn’t mean anything by it, but that was one of the last memories she had of me, and I wished I could take it back.

Related Characters: Salamanca “Sal” Tree Hiddle (speaker), Momma/Chanhassen “Sugar” Hiddle, Phoebe Winterbottom, Mrs. Winterbottom, Prudence Winterbottom
Page Number: 97
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 22 Quotes

And just like Phoebe, who had waved her mother’s sweater in front of her father, I had brought a chicken in from the coop: Would Mom leave her favorite chicken?” I demanded. “She loves this chicken.”

What I really meant was, “How can she not come back to me? She loves me.”

Related Characters: Salamanca “Sal” Tree Hiddle (speaker), Momma/Chanhassen “Sugar” Hiddle, Dad, Phoebe Winterbottom, Mrs. Winterbottom
Page Number: 125
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 26 Quotes

It went on and on like that. I hated her that day. I didn’t care how upset she was about her mother, I really hated her, and I wanted her to leave. I wondered if this was how my father felt when I threw all those temper tantrums. Maybe he hated me for a while.

Related Characters: Salamanca “Sal” Tree Hiddle (speaker), Momma/Chanhassen “Sugar” Hiddle, Dad, Phoebe Winterbottom, Mrs. Winterbottom
Page Number: 155
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 27 Quotes

I knew Phoebe was convinced that her mother was kidnapped because it was impossible for Phoebe to imagine that her mother could leave for any other reason. I wanted to call Phoebe and say that maybe her mother had gone looking for something, maybe her mother was unhappy, maybe there was nothing Phoebe could do about it.

When I told this part to Gram and Gramps, Gramps said, “You mean it had nothing to do with Peeby?” They looked at each other. They didn’t say anything, but there was something in that look that suggested I had just said something important. For the first time, it occurred to me that maybe my mother’s leaving had nothing whatsoever to do with me. It was separate and apart. We couldn’t own our mothers.

Related Characters: Salamanca “Sal” Tree Hiddle (speaker), Gramps (speaker), Momma/Chanhassen “Sugar” Hiddle, Gram, Phoebe Winterbottom, Mrs. Margaret Cadaver, Mrs. Winterbottom, The Lunatic/Mike Bickle
Page Number: 164
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 38 Quotes

“They sat there on the bench having a gay old time. If I could toss rocks like you can toss rocks, I’d have plonked them both in the back of the head. Did you notice her hair? She’s cut it. It’s short. And do you know what else she did? In the middle of talking, she leaned over and spit on the grass. Spit! It was disgusting. And the lunatic, do you know what he did when she spit? He laughed. Then he leaned over and he spit.”

Related Characters: Phoebe Winterbottom (speaker), Salamanca “Sal” Tree Hiddle, Mrs. Winterbottom, The Lunatic/Mike Bickle
Related Symbols: Hair
Page Number: 227
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 44 Quotes

Lately, I’ve been wondering if there might be something hidden behind the fireplace, because just as the fireplace was behind the plaster wall and my mother’s story was behind Phoebe’s, I think there was a third story behind Phoebe’s and my mother’s, and that was about Gram and Gramps.

Related Characters: Salamanca “Sal” Tree Hiddle (speaker), Momma/Chanhassen “Sugar” Hiddle, Dad, Gram, Gramps, Phoebe Winterbottom, Mrs. Winterbottom
Related Symbols: The Fireplace
Page Number: 254
Explanation and Analysis: