Booktalk version: Abilene Tucker arrives in the small town of Manifest hoping to find out more about her own past and that of her father, who has sent her here to live with friends while he works a railroad job during the Depression. Abilene finds new friends, adults who watch out for her as if she were family, and a mystery dating back to World War I. As she digs deeper into the town history to solve the mystery, Abilene hears stories about the past from the town diviner, Miss Sadie, and tries to weave them into her own knowledge and piece her own story together.
Full-length version: I bought the 2011 Newbery Medal winning book, Moon Over Manifest, for my library when it won, and I read the first few chapters, but haven't been able to finish it until today. I kept giving it to students and staff, hoping they would love it as much as I did even after just the little bit I had read. It is not even covered or stamped or labeled yet, it just kept getting passed along from reader to reader. They all loved it, and now I love it even more.
This book strikes me as a cross between The Penderwicks and Harriet the Spy, filled with memorable characters, excellent writing (examples to follow), a mystery, and an implicit trust that the reader will follow along the twists and turns without extraneous explaining.
At the beginning of the story, Abilene Tucker is arriving in Manifest, Kansas, where her father spent some time in his youth, and she is obviously independent and confident. She has her expectations for arriving in a new town, including the "universals" which seem to be the same in every town. Her story revolves around the idea of discovering that the town is not universal, and that "The line between truth and myth is sometimes difficult to see," says Miss Sadie, the town's mystic and diviner.
The book is filled with memorable and unique characters, met mostly through the stories Miss Sadie tells Abilene as she works in the hot summer sun to repay a debt to Miss Sadie. Abilene learns a bit more each day as she listens and watches, piecing together the story of the town of Manifest and her father, trying to find the own beginning and end to her own story.
Beautiful and charming language makes this book a joy to read.
"Better get on over to school. You don't want to be late." He studied the splayed-out typewriter in front of him. "Here's a couple things for you to mind while you're there." He handed me the letters P and Q.
The sign in the window said Miss Sadie was a medium. From the look of her, I'd say that was a bit wishful. The heavy red dress she wore brushed across the floor, tossing up dust as she hobbled to an ornate chair behind a round table.
Maybe the world wasn't made up of universals that could be summed up in neat little packages. Maybe there were just people. People who were tired and hurt and lonely and kind in their own way and their own time.
Until then, I'd never heard her speak, and I was surprised by her voice. I'd expected it to be sharp and tinny. But it came out quiet and soft, like velvet. And her words carried something sweet and precious.
A sweet and precious book that is asking to be read again and again. Is there any higher praise for a book? This would be a fabulous read-aloud for those studying World War I, the home front during 1918, or the Depression Era. The different voices telling the story from different points of view would be fun to read out loud to a class or a single listener.
As a student said in a note to me, after I shoved this book into her hands and told her she had to read it, "I see why this won the Newbery!"
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