Moon Over Manifest

Vanderpool, Clare. Moon Over Manifest. 2010. Delacorte Press, 351 pages. $16.99 ISBN: 9780385907507

Plot Summary:

Abilene is sent to live in Manifest, Kansas for the summer of 1935, when her father, Gideon, gets a job at the railroad in Chicago. All Abilene knows about Manifest is that her daddy lived there for a time as a boy and that he still had contacts there. Abilene does not understand why her daddy is sending her away; she had always stayed with him before, riding the rails from town to town looking for work. Abilene is suppose to be staying with Pastor Shady Howard, but when Abilene meets Shady he is hardly what she expects and neither is his house. Shady is not only the Baptist pastor, he also runs the local bar and bootlegs his own whiskey. Gideon had lived with Shady too, when he was in Manifest and Abilene quickly begins looking for clues about her father’s past, discovering a box of old letters and mementos in her room. Hoping the letters belonged to her father she was disappointed to see they were addressed to a Jinx from a Ned Gillen written in 1918. Knowing her father was in Manifest in 1918 she continues reading the letters getting caught up in the stories of a spy called the Rattler, which she shares with her new friends Lettie and Ruthanne.

Out one night spying with Ruthanne and Lettie, trying to discover the identity of the Rattler, Abilene loses the compass her daddy gave her. Later that night she sees it hanging from the porch of a house. Trying to steal the compass back Abilene breaks a pot and runs off. The next day, the old woman who lives in the house, Miss Sadie agrees to return the compass to Abilene, but first Abilene must work off the pot she broke. While Abilene works Sadie tells her stories about the town of Manifest in 1918, filling in gaps in the letters. Later Abilene shares the stories with Lettie and Ruthanne.

Abilene search for her father’s past also leads her to the newspaper office where she begins helping out local report Hattie Mae Macke. In exchange Hattie lets Abilene take any of the old newspapers she wants so she can continue to dig into the past. Abilene makes some startling discovers about the town of Manifest and about her father’s past that lead her to understand him and why he sent her away much better.

Critical Review:

Vanderpool’s, Moon over Manifest, is a magnificent and beautifully written novel. All of the characters of vivid and well developed. While Abilene is trying to find her father’s history she discovers a mystery that took place seventeen years earlier. Vanderpool paints a picture of life in the Midwest in both 1918 and 1935, both of which were tumultuous times with World War I and the Great Depression. Vanderpool also tackle the issue of racism and the existence of the Ku Klux Klan in the area at the time. Though the town of Manifest is not real it is clearly stated in the book that the town is located close to the border with Arkansas. Moon over Manifest is an excellent example of great historical fiction for tweens.

Genre:

Historical fiction

Mystery

Interest/Reading Level:

6^th to 9^th grades

Similar Books:

Turtle in Paradise by Jennifer Holm

To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee

Awards/Honors:

ALA Notable Book 2011

Newberry Award Winner 2011

Author’s Website:

http://www.clarevanderpool.com/