

She enjoys her grandparents' company and is astute enough to realize that she is the most sensible one of the three of them. Sal is at the crossroads of childhood and adulthood and for the most part, she seems to be negotiating the transition well. Just entering her teen years, she is both confused and excited by her feelings for Ben, which seem to her to come from nowhere and make no sense. Sal is basically a nice girl who will put up with a lot from her friends. She is a good friend and supportive of Phoebe even when Phoebe is being overly dramatic or extremely demanding. Sal is well-liked although considered a little weird-initially for her long, black hair that hangs past her waist, and subsequently because she admits to kissing trees in the journal that is read aloud to the English class. She loves her father very much and wishes he would stop trying to insert Margaret Cadaver into their lives. Her heart has been aching since her mother went away, and now she is almost used to this pain. Sal misses her mother enormously and all she wants is for her family to be back together again. Sal hates their new suburban home in Euclid and feels claustrophobic there. She especially loves the fact that her parents built the house they live in, and the fact that every day she can be with trees, wild flowers, chickens, and cows. Sal is a country girl who loves every aspect of growing up on the family farm in Kentucky.


When boys want to annoy Sal they call her "Salamander." She had wanted to be more specific about the type of tree but this would have blessed Sal with the rather unwieldy name of Salamanca Sugar Maple Tree Hiddle - so "Tree" sufficed. Sal's middle name comes from her mother's love of trees. Her full name is Salamanca Tree Hiddle her parents believed her great-great-grandmother had been a member of the Salamanca Indian tribe, and although they later discovered the tribe in question was actually the Seneca, they had already named their daughter. Sal is a thirteen-year-old girl who is the narrator and the protagonist of the novel. Buy Study Guide Salamanca Tree Hiddle (Sal)
