Cricket’s primary drive throughout the book is her love for and devotion to her mother. She is willing to go to great lengths, even risking her life, for the opportunity to see her mother again. Cricket believes a time will come when her mother stops abandoning her, and she thinks she can reach that future by finding the Bird Room and solving the puzzle. What Cricket does not realize is that her mother is not interested in solving Bob’s puzzle or finding the room again. She had been cheating on Cricket’s father and is now pregnant and living with a new boyfriend. Cricket wants to live in a world where her mother cares as deeply about her as she cares about her mother, but she must accept that such a world is out of reach.

People in Cricket’s life show others love and devotion. Cricket’s father loved her, and he wanted to teach her more about the woods. While Mama is not able or not willing to extend devotion and love to her daughter, she is devoted to setting up her mother’s headstone. Miss Vidalia felt a lot of love for Bob even though he was not her family.