What is Bybanks – Kentucky?
Bybanks is a fictional town located in the state of Kentucky and this town is featured in two children’s novels written by Sharon Creech. Bybanks is said to be inspired from the real town of Quincy, also in Kentucky. Quincy is a town situated near the Ohio River at the northeastern section of the state.

“Walk Two Moons” is one novel by Sharon Creech which featured Bybanks in Kentucky as the place where the main character is from. In this particular novel, the story revolves around a 13-year old girl named Salamanca Tree Hiddle. She hails from the said town and travels to another state with her grandparents. While the characters were on their way to another state (Idaho), the main character tells of her story on her supposedly lunatic and disappearing mother. Salamanca also shares the story regarding Phoebe Winterbottom.

Chasing Redbird is another book by the same author which featured the fictional town of Bybanks, Kentucky. In this novel, the main character’s name is Zinnia Taylor and she happens to live with her family that owns a farm in Bybanks. The story evolves around a trail in the farm that stretches for twenty miles. Zinnia’s character tries to clear the trail and discovers a lot of things along the way. These things that she discovered relate to herself and her family.

The author of these two novels particularly liked the idea of having a fictional town included in her stories. When Bybanks was first featured on the novel “Walk Two Moons”, Sharon Creech followed it up with another “Bybanks appearance” in “Chasing Redbird”. According to her, she just thought that the character of Zinnia could have been a friend to Salamanca. She also fondly recalls the real town of Quincy from which Bybanks was based. Quincy-Kentucky reminds the author of the farm house owned by her cousins and this real family setup inspired her to use the town in two of her children’s novels.