List $25.95

Written by Sharon Creech - Audio book performed by Hope Davis - Unabridged Fiction - COMPACT DISCS

Publisher, Harper Audio (March 2006)

Recommended for Grades 4 - 6

Listen to an MP3 audio clip.

"Gramps says that I am a country girl at heart, and that is true."

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.

Beneath Phoebe's stories Salamanca's own story and that of her mother, who left on an April morning for Idaho, promising to return before the tulips bloomed. Sal's mother has not, however, returned, and the trip to Idaho takes on a growing urgency as Salamanca hopes to get to Idaho in time for her mother's birthday and bring her back, despite her father's warning that she is fishing in the air.

On her long car trip from Ohio to Idaho, 13-year-old Salamanca Hiddle tells her grandparents the story of her friend Phoebe, who receives a message from a "lunatic" and who must cope with the disappearance of her mother. But beneath this story is Sal's own story, and that of her mother, who left home one day and never returned.

This richly layered novel is in turn funny, mysterious, and touching. Sharon Creech's original voice tells a story like no other, one that readers will not soon forget.

Winner of the 1995 Newbery Medal
A 1995 ALA Notable Children's Book
School Library Journal Best Book of 1994
Winner of a 1994 Bulletin Blue Ribbon
A 1995 Notable Children's Trade Book in the Language Arts (NCTE)
Winner of the 1997 Heartland Award for Excellence in Young Adult Literature
Children's Book Award for Longer Novels (Great Britain's Federation of Children's Books Groups)
Outstanding Books of 1994 for Middle School-Aged Teens (V)
Best Books 1994 (SLJ)

About the Author: Sharon Creech is the author of the Newbery Medal winner Walk Two Moons and the Newbery Honor winner The Wanderer. Her other novels include Heartbeat, Ruby Holler, Love That Dog, Bloomability, Absolutely Normal Chaos, Chasing Redbird, and Pleasing The Ghost, as well as three picture books: A Fine, Fine School; Fishing in the Air; and Who's That Baby? Ms. Creech and her husband live in upstate New York.