In her own singularly beautiful style, Newbery Medal winner Sharon Creech intricately weaves together two tales, one funny, one bittersweet, to create a heartwarming, compelling, and utterly moving story of love, loss, and the complexity of human emotion.
Thirteen-year-old Salamanca Tree Hiddle, proud of her country roots and the ""Indian-ness in her blood,"" travels from Ohio to Idaho with her eccentric grandparents. Along the way, she tells them of the story of Phoebe Winterbottom, who received mysterious messages, who met a ""potential lunatic,"" and whose mother disappeared.
As Sal entertains her grandparents with Phoebe's outrageous story, her own story begins to unfold—the story of a thirteen-year-old girl whose only wish is to be reunited with her missing mother.
In her own singularly beautiful style, Newbery Medal winner Sharon Creech intricately weaves together two tales, one funny, one bittersweet, to create a heartwarming, compelling, and utterly moving story of love, loss, and the complexity of human emotion.
Thirteen-year-old Salamanca Tree Hiddle, proud of her country roots and the ""Indian-ness in her blood,"" travels from Ohio to Idaho with her eccentric grandparents. Along the way, she tells them of the story of Phoebe Winterbottom, who received mysterious messages, who met a ""potential lunatic,"" and whose mother disappeared.
As Sal entertains her grandparents with Phoebe's outrageous story, her own story begins to unfold—the story of a thirteen-year-old girl whose only wish is to be reunited with her missing mother.
Reviews-
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On a road trip with her grandparents, 13-year-old Salamanaca Tree Hiddle is retracing her lost mother's steps on a journey from Ohio to Idaho. To pass the time, she tells a tale of her friend Phoebe Winterbottom's missing mother, seeing parallels that help her cope with her own loss. Hope Davis brings this 1995 Newbery winner to life with an insightful performance. Phoebe's voice is especially poignant and believable. Davis manages to communicate Phoebe's excitement, fears, and curiosity in the voice of an adolescent rushing to adulthood. The loving relationship between Sal and her grandparents is also brought to life vividly through their banter and a generous sprinkling of idioms that reflect Sal's Native American heritage. N.E.M. (c) AudioFile 2006, Portland, Maine
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October 1, 1994
Gr 6-9-An engaging story of love and loss, told with humor and suspense. Thirteen-year-old Salamanca Tree Hiddle's mother leaves home suddenly on a spiritual quest, vowing to return, but can't keep her promise. The girl and her father leave their farm in Kentucky and move to Ohio, where Sal meets Phoebe Winterbottom, also 13. While Sal accompanies her eccentric grandparents on a six-day drive to Idaho to retrace her mother's route, she entertains them with the tale of Phoebe, whose mother has also left home. While this story-within-a-story is a potentially difficult device, in the hands of this capable author it works well to create suspense, keep readers' interest, and draw parallels between the situations and reactions of the two girls. Sal's emotional journey through the grieving process-from denial to anger and finally to acceptance-is depicted realistically and with feeling. Indeed, her initial confusion and repression of the truth are mirrored in the book; even readers are unaware until near the end, that Sal's mother has died. Phoebe's mother does return home, bringing with her a son previously unknown to her family, who is accepted with alacrity. Overall, a richly layered novel about real and metaphorical journeys.-Connie Tyrrell Burns, Mahoney Middle School, South Portland, ME -
November 15, 1994
Gr. 7-9. Thirteen-year-old Sal Hiddle can't deal with all the upheaval in her life. Her mother, Sugar, is in Idaho, and although Sugar promised to return before the tulips bloomed, she hasn't come back. Instead, Mr. Hiddle has moved Sal from the farm she loves so much and has even taken up company with the unpleasantly named Mrs. Cadaver. Multilayered, the book tells the story of Sal's trip to Idaho with her grandparents; and as the car clatters along, Sal tells her grandparents the story of her friend Phoebe, who receives messages from a "lunatic" and who must cope with the disappearance of her mother. The novel is ambitious and successful on many fronts: the characters, even the adults, are fully realized; the story certainly keeps readers' interest; and the pacing is good throughout. But Creech's surprises--that Phoebe's mother has an illegitimate son and that Sugar is buried in Idaho, where she died after a bus accident--are obvious in the first case and contrived in the second. Sal knows her mother is dead; that Creech makes readers think otherwise seems a cheat, though one, it must be admitted, that may bother adults more than kids. Still, when Sal's on the road with her grandparents, spinning Phoebe's yarn and trying to untangle her own, this story sings. ((Reviewed November 15, 1994))(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 1994, American Library Association.) -
This Newbery Award-winning story tenderly intertwines threads of love, loss and growth. Thirteen-year-old Sal, journeying with Gram and Gramps to find her mother, tells the story of Phoebe, whose mother disappears and then returns. Eventually, Sal realizes that underneath Phoebe's story lies her own. Harper's insightful narration shows the depth of her relationship with the story and enhances its beauty. With warmth and awareness, she reveals Sal's deepest thoughts. Softly and tenderly, she shares Sal's memories of her mother. With sagacity and humor, she gives us Gram and Gramps. Listeners 12 years old and up will recognize this as a story that should be heard, not just read. R.M. (c)AudioFile, Portland, Maine
