Walk Two Moons

by

Sharon Creech

Mr. Birkway is Sal and Phoebe’s English teacher. He’s a lively man who clearly loves his subject, and though Sal describes him as “peculiar,” he also has an endearing ability to make a person feel like he wants nothing more than to listen to whatever they have to say. He helps teach his students the value of difference and perspective, which he intends to teach by reading passages from his students’ summer journals aloud. To some degree, this works: he uses passages to make points about how people see things differently, and he suggests that what a person takes away from a particular literary work will always be unique to them. But Mr. Birkway decides that reading the journals aloud was a mistake when he reads Phoebe’s journal and discovers that Phoebe believes Mrs. Cadaver is a murderer who hacked up her own husband. After this, Mr. Birkway reveals to Phoebe and Sal that Mrs. Cadaver is his twin sister, and that Mr. Cadaver died in the car crash that blinded Margaret and Mr. Birkway’s mother, Mrs. Partridge.

Mr. Birkway Quotes in Walk Two Moons

The Walk Two Moons quotes below are all either spoken by Mr. Birkway or refer to Mr. Birkway. 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 20 Quotes

In my mini journal, I confessed that I had since kissed all different kinds of trees, and each family of trees—oaks, maples, elms, birches—had a special flavor all its own. Mixed which each tree’s taste was the slight taste of blackberries, and why this was so, I could not explain.

Related Characters: Salamanca “Sal” Tree Hiddle (speaker), Momma/Chanhassen “Sugar” Hiddle, Mr. Birkway
Related Symbols: Blackberries
Page Number: 113-14
Explanation and Analysis:

“He probably never took English,” Phoebe said.

To me that Y looked like the newly born horse standing up on his thin legs.

The poem was about a newlY born horse who doesn’t know anything but feels everything. He lives in a “smoothbeautifully folded” world. I liked that. I was not sure what it was, but I liked it. Everything sounded soft and safe.

Related Characters: Salamanca “Sal” Tree Hiddle (speaker), Phoebe Winterbottom (speaker), Mr. Birkway
Page Number: 114
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 30 Quotes

Instead, I lay there thinking of the poem about the traveler, and I could see the tide rising and falling, and those horrid white hands snatching the traveler. How could it be normal, that traveler dying? And how could such a thing be normal and terrible both at the same time?

Related Characters: Salamanca “Sal” Tree Hiddle (speaker), Momma/Chanhassen “Sugar” Hiddle, The Lunatic/Mike Bickle, Mr. Birkway
Page Number: 184
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 37 Quotes

If there had been a vase, would have squashed it, because our heads moved completely together and our lips landed in the right place, which was on the other person’s lips. It was a real kiss, and it did not taste like chicken.

And then our heads moved slowly backward and we stared out across the lawn, and I felt like the newlY born horse who knows nothing but feels everything.

Ben touched his lips. “Did it taste a little like blackberries to you?” He said.

Related Characters: Salamanca “Sal” Tree Hiddle (speaker), Ben Finney (speaker), Momma/Chanhassen “Sugar” Hiddle, Mr. Birkway, Ben’s Mother
Related Symbols: Blackberries
Page Number: 225
Explanation and Analysis:
Get the entire Walk Two Moons LitChart as a printable PDF.
Walk Two Moons PDF

Mr. Birkway Quotes in Walk Two Moons

The Walk Two Moons quotes below are all either spoken by Mr. Birkway or refer to Mr. Birkway. 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 20 Quotes

In my mini journal, I confessed that I had since kissed all different kinds of trees, and each family of trees—oaks, maples, elms, birches—had a special flavor all its own. Mixed which each tree’s taste was the slight taste of blackberries, and why this was so, I could not explain.

Related Characters: Salamanca “Sal” Tree Hiddle (speaker), Momma/Chanhassen “Sugar” Hiddle, Mr. Birkway
Related Symbols: Blackberries
Page Number: 113-14
Explanation and Analysis:

“He probably never took English,” Phoebe said.

To me that Y looked like the newly born horse standing up on his thin legs.

The poem was about a newlY born horse who doesn’t know anything but feels everything. He lives in a “smoothbeautifully folded” world. I liked that. I was not sure what it was, but I liked it. Everything sounded soft and safe.

Related Characters: Salamanca “Sal” Tree Hiddle (speaker), Phoebe Winterbottom (speaker), Mr. Birkway
Page Number: 114
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 30 Quotes

Instead, I lay there thinking of the poem about the traveler, and I could see the tide rising and falling, and those horrid white hands snatching the traveler. How could it be normal, that traveler dying? And how could such a thing be normal and terrible both at the same time?

Related Characters: Salamanca “Sal” Tree Hiddle (speaker), Momma/Chanhassen “Sugar” Hiddle, The Lunatic/Mike Bickle, Mr. Birkway
Page Number: 184
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 37 Quotes

If there had been a vase, would have squashed it, because our heads moved completely together and our lips landed in the right place, which was on the other person’s lips. It was a real kiss, and it did not taste like chicken.

And then our heads moved slowly backward and we stared out across the lawn, and I felt like the newlY born horse who knows nothing but feels everything.

Ben touched his lips. “Did it taste a little like blackberries to you?” He said.

Related Characters: Salamanca “Sal” Tree Hiddle (speaker), Ben Finney (speaker), Momma/Chanhassen “Sugar” Hiddle, Mr. Birkway, Ben’s Mother
Related Symbols: Blackberries
Page Number: 225
Explanation and Analysis: