Singular, vividly realized characters are at the heart of this moving, funny and astonishing novel. On a cross-country trip to Idaho to visit her mother, thirteen-year-old Sal fascinates and delights her grandparents with the story of mystery surrounding her best friend Phoebe Winterbottom, or Peeby as Gram and Gramps refer to her. But in telling Phoebe's story, Sal is also telling her grandparent's her own - how she is dealing with the changes in her life since her mother left their Kentucky home and she and her father moved to Ohio. The narrative moves back and forth between Sal on the road with her grandparents and Sal's story of Phoebe, but throughout, she privately reflects on her own memories of life back in Kentucky before her mother went away, when things seemed calm and whole. The journey west with her grandparents, who are colorful, quirky characters with boundless love, is healing for Sal as she comes to understand and accept why her mother went away. An added bonus for Wisconsin readers are the stops Sal and her grandparents make in downtown Madison and the Wisconsin Dells as they journey west. Winner, 1994 CCBC Newbery Award Discussion. (Ages 10-14)