"How about a story? Spin us a yarn."

Instantly, Phoebe Winterbottom came to mind.

"I could tell you an extensively strange story," I warned. "Oh,

good!" Gram said. "Delicious!"

And that is how I happened to tell them about Phoebe, her disappearing

mother, and the lunatic. In her own award-winning style, 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.