To protect the children from the horrors of the war, Moore's father and grandmother created a magical narrative for them in which gunshots were "dragons fighting" and dead bodies were "people sleeping on the road".[3][13] At the time, Moore's mother Mamawa was studying at Columbia University on a Fulbright scholarship, and had no news of her family's fate. Mamawa flew to Sierra Leone, where she eventually found a female fighter who was able to locate the rest of the family and bring them across the border. Subsequently, the Moore family moved to Houston, Texas.[14] There, Moore read and wrote prolifically, which she credits with helping her overcome the trauma she experienced during the war.[15]