This is a story about a girl named Salamanca
who is travelling with her grandparents from
Ohio to Idaho to visit her mother, who left
their family some time ago.
As they are driving across the country and
visiting various places, Sal tells her grandparents
the story of her friend, Phoebe, an opinionated
girl with family issues.
Phoebe's story starts with Sal and her father
moving to Ohio from Kentucky because of a
woman named Mrs. Cadaver.
Naturally, Sal does not like Mrs. Cadaver
and instead befriends Mrs. Cadaver's neighbor,
Phoebe.
The girls get along fine, but then mysterious
notes start appearing at Phoebe's house.
Phoebe is convinced that there is a lunatic
in the neighborhood.
To make matters worse, Phoebe's mother decides
to leave without telling anyone where she
is going.
Phoebe's imagination gets the best of her
and she is convinced that the lunatic kidnapped
and murdered her mother.
However, it is soon revealed that Phoebe's
mother has a son in college and she wants
him to be a part of the family.
This surprises Phoebe's entire family, but
they soon learn to accept it.
As Sal and her grandparents are nearing Idaho,
Sal's grandmother suffers a stroke and is
taken to the hospital.
Sal's grandfather gives Sal the keys and she
drives alone to find her mother.
The road is windy, but Sal bravely makes it
through the night.
She then spots the remnants of an overturned
bus on the side of the road.
She investigates it, but the sheriffs catch
her.
She learns that the accident had one surviving
passenger, Mrs. Cadaver, who had sat next
to Sal's mother on the bus ride.
After learning Sal's identity, the sheriffs
take her to her mother's grave.
Saddened, Sal returns to the hospital to find
that her grandmother has passed away.
In the end, Sal and her father return to Kentucky
to live on their farm.
First, this story is about layers.
It's a story within a story within a story.
The initial story is about Sal and her grandparents,
but it's also a story about Phoebe and her
family back in Ohio.
And when the grandmother passes away at the
end, readers understand that there is also
a hidden story about the grandparents travelling
across the country.
For a children's book, this story is also
culturally rich, pulling references from Native
American culture and Greek mythology.
There are several references to Pandora and
Prometheus, and even Euclid, the city in Ohio,
alludes to Greek mythology.
But from this myth talk comes an interesting
idea from Sal.
She talks about Pandora for a school project,
but wonders if there is a reverse Pandora's
box, where it's filled with all good things
except one bad thing.
The climax of this story highlights an important
message about how people, particularly children,
deal with overwhelming situations.
People often create myths or stories to cope
with certain events in their lives.
These stories aren't necessarily lies, but
rather attempts to interpret the seemingly
random events.
And while this highlights how the human brain
is so creative to create logic and order in
our lives, it also demonstrates how dangerous
this can be when people don't accept reality.
Readers learn that Sal knew about her mother's
death the entire duration of the story, which
is why she is constantly nervous about the
twisted roads in the mountains and continuously
imagines cars driving off.
The purpose of her trip to Idaho was not only
to force Sal to see the grave for herself,
but to also allow Sal to experience her mother's
journey to Idaho - an opportunity to walk
two moons in her mother's shoes.
