Moon Over Manifest [Kindle Edition]

Clare Vanderpool (Author)

Book Description

Winner of the 2011 Newbery Award.

The movement of the train rocked me like a lullaby. I closed my eyes to the dusty countryside and imagined the sign I’d seen only in Gideon’s stories: Manifest—A Town with a rich past and a bright future.
 
Abilene Tucker feels abandoned. Her father has put her on a train, sending her off to live with an old friend for the summer while he works a railroad job. Armed only with a few possessions and her list of universals, Abilene jumps off the train in Manifest, Kansas, aiming to learn about the boy her father once was.
Having heard stories about Manifest, Abilene is disappointed to find that it’s just a dried-up, worn-out old town. But her disappointment quickly turns to excitement when she discovers a hidden cigar box full of mementos, including some old letters that mention a spy known as the Rattler. These mysterious letters send Abilene and her new friends, Lettie and Ruthanne, on an honest-to-goodness spy hunt, even though they are warned to “Leave Well Enough Alone.”
Abilene throws all caution aside when she heads down the mysterious Path to Perdition to pay a debt to the reclusive Miss Sadie, a diviner who only tells stories from the past. It seems that Manifest’s history is full of colorful and shadowy characters—and long-held secrets. The more Abilene hears, the more determined she is to learn just what role her father played in that history. And as Manifest’s secrets are laid bare one by one, Abilene begins to weave her own story into the fabric of the town.
 
Powerful in its simplicity and rich in historical detail, Clare Vanderpool’s debut is a gripping story of loss and redemption.


From the Hardcover edition.

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Gr 5-8–History and fiction marry beautifully in this lively debut novel. It's as if readers jump off the train in Manifest, KS, in 1936 with Abilene Tucker, 12, the feisty, likable, and perceptive narrator. She is there to live with Pastor Shady Howard, her father's friend, while her father works on the railroad back in Iowa. An equally important story set during World War I is artfully intertwined. Since her mother went off on her own 10 years earlier, Abilene and Gideon have been alone. Though their life together is unsettled, their bond is strong. Shady's place is shabby, but he is welcoming. The mystery about Manifest and Gideon unfolds after Abilene finds a box filled with intriguing keepsakes. It includes a letter dated 1917 to someone named Jinx from Ned Gillen that has a warning, “THE RATTLER is watching.” This starts Abilene, with the help of new friends Ruthanne and Lettie, on a search to learn the identity of the pair. The story cleverly shifts back and forth between the two eras. Abilene becomes connected to Miss Sadie, a “diviner” who slowly leads her through the story of Ned and Jinx. Though the girl is lonely, she adjusts to her new life, feeling sure that her father will come for her at summer's end. The Ku Klux Klan and its campaign against the many immigrants working in the coal mines and the deplorable conditions and exploitation of these men provide important background. This thoroughly enjoyable, unique page-turner is a definite winner.–Renee Steinberg, formerly at Fieldstone Middle School, Montvale, NJα(c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

From Booklist

*Starred Review* After a life of riding the rails with her father, 12-year-old Abilene can’t understand why he has sent her away to stay with Pastor Shady Howard in Manifest, Missouri, a town he left years earlier; but over the summer she pieces together his story. In 1936, Manifest is a town worn down by sadness, drought, and the Depression, but it is more welcoming to newcomers than it was in 1918, when it was a conglomeration of coal-mining immigrants who were kept apart by habit, company practice, and prejudice. Abilene quickly finds friends and uncovers a local mystery. Their summerlong “spy hunt” reveals deep-seated secrets and helps restore residents’ faith in the bright future once promised on the town’s sign. Abilene’s first-person narrative is intertwined with newspaper columns from 1917 to 1918 and stories told by a diviner, Miss Sadie, while letters home from a soldier fighting in WWI add yet another narrative layer. Vanderpool weaves humor and sorrow into a complex tale involving murders, orphans, bootlegging, and a mother in hiding. With believable dialogue, vocabulary and imagery appropriate to time and place, and well-developed characters, this rich and rewarding first novel is “like sucking on a butterscotch. Smooth and sweet.” Grades 5-8. --Kathleen Isaacs

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• File Size: 1979 KB
• Print Length: 370 pages
• Page Numbers Source ISBN: 0385738838
• Publisher: Delacorte Books for Young Readers; 1 edition (October 12, 2010)
• Sold by: Random House Digital, Inc.
• Language: English
• ASIN: B003F3FJVE
• Text-to-Speech: Not enabled
• X-Ray: Enabled
• Lending: Not Enabled
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #24,915 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)
  • #9 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Children's eBooks > History & Historical Fiction > Fiction > United States > 1900s
  • #77 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Children's eBooks > Mysteries, Espionage, & Detectives
  • #87 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Children's eBooks > Issues > Friendship

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

120 of 123 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars A Delightful Newbery Surprise! January 11, 2011

By C.Lea

Format:Hardcover

Moon Over Manifest begins with rough-and-tumble, Depression-era stock heroine, Abilene Tucker, arriving in her father's hometown of Manifest, Kansas. She's used to hopping trains, poor living conditions, a rough life and being a little rough around the edges. You know the type. Her father has taken a railroad job in Iowa, and claiming that the situation isn't proper for a young lady, has sent her to spend the summer with his old friend, bootlegger-turned-pastor, Shady Howard. Or, at least, her father says it is only for the summer...

Looking for clues to her father's past, Abilene instead stumbles instead on a little tin filled with some keepsakes and letters, piquing her interest in a couple of young men named Ned and Jinx, and a spy called "the Rattler."

And this is where the story comes alive...

Through the recollections of an old Gypsy fortune teller, Abilene learns about the lives of Jinx, Ned, and about the once-lively town of Manifest, Kansas. Vanderpool manages to effortlessly weave in the stories of Manifest in 1918, on the brink of the Great War, with the Depression-era Manifest of 1939. Sometimes, stories with multiple narratives can be frustrating -- just as you start to get into one story, the author switches to the other -- but Vanderpool balances both very well, never sinking to obvious cliff-hangers nor spending too much time in one "place."

However, both places have their elements of excitement and mystery that keep you wanting to read about both. Best of all, both are full of some really great and memorable characters. This is one of those novels that is just chock full of people (there's even a handy character guide in the front of the book, but the characters are so vivid and real, you won't much need it) that really give the impression of, well, the life of a whole town.

Meanwhile, in terms of historical fiction writing, Vanderpool couldn't have picked a more exciting couple of decades to write about. There's war, depression, labor issues, prohibition, poor race-relations, orphan trains, immigration, and Hoovervilles. All of it filtered through the very relatable character of Abilene Tucker, who is, admittedly, still something of a stock heroine. However, she'll seem fresh enough to the younger set.

Overall, this is a fine novel that I really enjoyed reading, and it kept me interested enough to blow through it in less than 24-hours. Only time and a little perspective can really tell how a Newbery will do in the overall scheme of things, but I think that it is a fine choice, and congratulations to first-time author Clare Vanderpool, from whom I look forward to reading more.

A book about a girl I think you could get a boy to read, best for ages 10-14.

41 of 42 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Not Just For Tweens February 11, 2011

By Teresa Jeanne

Format:Hardcover

I passed by purchasing this book once, as it was billed for tweens. But on an impulse I bought it. I wasn't sure how I was going to like it when the narrative switched from 1936 to 1918 and of course, the reader understood the connections between the eras before the protagonist did, but she did get it before the end. I liked that the connection was not the *surprise* ending. There are in fact three surprise endings, none of which the reader is fully prepared for. I did not find the character of Abiline to be underdeveloped. She is a tough nut to crack. She is not going to bare her soul to the reader anymore than she does to to the people of Manifest unless she gets the lay of the land. Unlike todays over emotive teenagers, she keeps her own counsel and dignity intact.

Although I was born sixteen years after the story begins, I can attest that the description of small towns in Kansas during the depression is completely accurate. The remmants of the mining in Southeast Kansas are there today. An added bonus to this book, was the author's postscript pointing out what was historically accurate and what was fiction.

If the author continues to write for this age group, more power to her. But I think she also has the talent to turn out a novel that will appeal to adults. Let us hope she keeps writing!

32 of 33 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A manifestly wonderful story. February 13, 2011

By Richard R. Sefi

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

Written by a master. This book is as suitable for adults as for the listed age group. It is hauntingly enjoyable and unforgetable. It is one of those rarities that should enter the consciousness of all its readers, to be carried along with all the other stored memories of books we think of as important to us.

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