Moon Over Manifest

by Clare Vanderpool. 351 pages


Early on the morning of January 10, I'm listening to the ALA Media Award announcements. I hear the winner of the 2011 Newbery Award announced: Moon over Manifest, by Clare Vanderpool. What? Who? I know I do not keep as current about new juvenile and young adult literature as I did in my last job, but I usually have some inkling of what's going on. I felt a bit better when I spoke with a couple of other people who were equally perplexed.

Once I read Vanderpool's tale of 12-year-old Abilene Tucker and the stories she lives and hears when she moves to the town of Manifest, Kansas, I understood. This has to be the best job of storytelling since Sachar's Holes -- winner of the 1999 Newbery Award. Through Abilene's first person narration set in 1936, newspaper articles from 1918, and the stories the diviner Miss Sadie tells about Manifest's past, the reader sees the various pieces dropping in place until the entire picture unfolds, with the sum being much greater than its parts.

Abilene is the daughter of a drifter, riding the rails from one town to the next. She's never known a permanent home or family other than her father, Gideon. After a scratch leads to an infection that leaves her with a high fever, Gideon sends the recovered Abilene to Manifest, Kansas to stay with an old friend, Shady, who seems to be a part-time preacher and part-time bootlegger. Abilene feels perplexed and abandoned and is determined to learn about her father's past from Shady and other members of the diverse community. Abilene discovers an old box filled with mysterious mementos in her room at Shady's. Abilene shares her discovery with Ruthanne and Lettie, cousins with whom she's become friends upon her arrive in Manifest. As the girls start the search for the meaning behind the objects, they learn of a mysterious character from the war years who some supposed to be a spy. The reader goes back and forth between 1918 Manifest and its occupants and the current Manifest of 1936, but the transitions are seamless and the story moves quickly. As the summer progresses and Abilene becomes frustrated that her father doesn't seem to have a past in Manifest, she (and the town of Manifest) learns about the value of stories to a person's past, present and future.

I have to say, I questioned the setting for this story when I began reading. Really, some small, rural town in Kansas that is populated by Poles, Germans, Greeks, Hungarians and more? But Vanderpool not only weaves a fascinating story, she provides historical reference and facts as foundation for this full story with its rich collection of characters. She drops subtle and innocent hints that are well-placed. And it's such fun to see those innocent hints become pieces that fit together to make a fascinating picture.