Who is Rebecca Jones from Songs of the Humpback Whale and what is their importance?

As a fourteen-year old when the story begins, Rebecca Jones seeks solid, unshakable love. Her father, Oliver Jones, loves whales and her immature mother Jane is emotionally unstable. At age three and a half, she is taken across country by her mother and later put on a plane that crashes in Iowa. Rebecca is one of five survivors of the crash and a photo of her appears on the cover of Time magazine.