I picked this up at the Vogelweh Air Base (GERMANY) Library Free Book Exchange. I hope to READ and RELEASE!

This book is a Newbery Medal Winner for the year 1995.

The Newbery Medal was named for eighteenth-century British bookseller John Newbery. It is awarded annually by the Association for Library Service to Children, a division of the American Library Association, to the author of the most distinguished contribution to American literature for children.

This book is a Sequoyah Book Award Winning Book for Children for the year 1997.

Sponsored by the Oklahoma Library Association (OLA), the annual Sequoyah Book Award is a student’s choice award presented since 1959. The program added a Young Adult literature award in 1987. Books chosen for the annual Sequoyah masterlist are selected by two committees of OLA members. Each member of the committee reads over 100 books before recommending titles for the masterlists.
During the school year, young Oklahomans from grades three through junior high are encouraged to read the titles from the masterlist. Students must read or listen to three books in order to cast a vote. The winning book is announced in February and the award is presented during the annual Oklahoma Library Association’s spring conference.
With this award, Oklahoma honors the Native American leader, Sequoyah, for his unique achievement in creating the Cherokee syllabary. In so doing, he created a way to preserve his people’s language and culture.

From the back cover:

Thirteen-year-old Salamanca Tree Hiddle, known as Sal, is traveling from Ohio to Idaho with her grandparents, in search of her mother. Along the way, she tells them the story of Phoebe Winterbottom, who received mysterious messages, met a "potential lunatic," and whose mother disappeared. Beneath Phoebe's story is Sal's story and that of her mother, who left one day for Idaho and has not returned. Sal has less than a week 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, Sal knows this journey is the only chance she has for reuniting her family.

I would have to say that this was not a favorite book of mine. It just never really grabbed me and I kept feeling like the narrator was just rambling on. The thought process did not seem all that clear to me and I had a hard time jumping from what was happening right now to the flashback type stories that were beig told in the car.

The ending seemed wrong to me as well. I don't want to give away any of it but I must say that Sal seemed to be living in some sort of fantasy world and it is unclear to me if she comes to accept her mother or not.

As for a recommendation, I wouldn't tell anyone to go out and read this book because I thought that it was the best thing ever but I don't think that I would discourage anyone from reading it either. I know that my tastes don't mirror everyone elses andI like to leave each to their own.

RELEASE NOTES: