Review: Moon Over Manifest.

The Newbery Award Winning Moon Over Manifest, a debut novel by Clare Vanderpool, is a marvelous story about twelve-year-old Abilene Tucker, whose father, Gideon, has shipped her off to Manifest, Kansas, purportedly for the summer of 1936 while he works on the railroad.  Gideon, who had lived for a short time in Manifest as a boy, had loved the small town and knew Abilene would feel at home there.

It is here that Abilene meets the odd assortment of Manifest residents, from Shady who lives in a church/speakeasy to Miss Sadie the diviner who reads both the earth and the people of the town and regales Abilene with stories from 1917 and 1918 to Sister Redempta who seems to be more than she appears.

Vanderpool has created a town we would all love to live in, a cast of characters we would all want as friends and a story that we would all love to partake in.  She has interspersed the two time periods, 1917 and 1936 into a story with mystery, soul searching, humor and discovery.  It is in Manifest that Abilene truly comes to know herself and her father. 

Moon Over Manifest is a book that you can read over and over again.  I can't rave about it enough.  But don't take my word for it.  Read it for yourself.  For my complete review, click here.