Moon Over Manifest: (Newbery Medal Winner)

My 11-year-old son and I just finished Moon Over Manifest written by Clare Vanderpool, in two days of marathon reading. What a book! I highly recommend this book for kids who love drama, mystery, and just really well-written special stories that stay in your heart. Moon Over Manifest is beyond wonderful, an instant classic. I love that the author delivers a lot of human history in richly digestible tales. Historical stories are told in vivid dramatic accounts delivered by the equally dramatic diviner Miss Sadie, through curious old letters found in a cigar box in a floorboard and in funny, newsy accounts from Hattie Mae, reporter about town. The main character is plucky Abilene Tucker, who has been dropped off for the summer in a dusty Kansas town by her railroad worker father. The book is poignant and rich – at times sad, suspenseful and then laugh-out-loud funny. There are clever cons, complicated family relationships and many examples of human triumphs, both large and small. Abilene quickly gains two friends, and the girls spend the summer running around, hiding out and looking for a spy called The Rattler. Both young adult male and female friendships are celebrated, in the 1936 story of Abilene and her summer friends and the 1918 hijinks of two boys named Jinx and Ned. The author manages to touch on many aspects of American life in both 1918 and 1936, as she weaves her tale of Abilene, searching for answers of her father’s past life in a strange new town. Vanderpool tackles important subjects like racism, depicting a frightening Klan rally in the woods and the treatment of immigrant miners. The author tells of prohibition, speakeasies and bootlegging, through Abilene’s guardian for the summer, a kind but complicated man named Shady. The reader can gain new insights into WWI and the 1918 influenza outbreak, the drought of the Dust Bowl, the Great Depression and much more. When I bought this book, I didn't know a subplot of the story would be how the 1918 influenza impacted a little town in southeast Kansas. Particularly if you have a middle schooler, consider reading Moon Over Manifest aloud with your child. There are so many opportunities for important conversations to be had. I don’t think anyone can read this book without it leaving an indelible mark and a few tears. This book is certainly well deserving of the Newbury Medal it won.