2015 TBR Challenge – MOON OVER MANIFEST Review

My seventh review for the Official 2015 TBR Pile Challenge is MOON OVER MANIFEST by Clare Vanderpool.

The goal of this challenge is “to finally read 12 books from your ‘to be read’ pile within twelve months”. To qualify for the challenge, books must be read and reviewed before the year is over, and all selections must have publishing dates from the year 2013 or older. (Here are the books I’ll be reading this year.)

I first heard Clare Vanderpool speak at the SCBWI LA Summer Conference a few years ago. When she gave the keynote address, she discussed the universal need for stories. She said, “We learn more not by dissecting books but by immersing ourselves in stories. We all have this need for a connection to story. It is through stories that we find our bearings.”

I loved that.

This belief really comes across in her own writing – connection and emotion. After all, if I don’t feel something as a reader, I’m not going to care about the story.

Needless to say, I did feel and I did care.

On to the Review!

MOON OVER MANIFEST by Clare Vanderpool

Published by: Delacorte Books for Young Readers

Release Date: October 12, 2010

Genres: Middle Grade, Historical Fiction, Mystery

Plot Summary:

The movement of the train rocked me like a lullaby. I closed my eyes to the dusty countryside and imagined the sign I’d seen only in Gideon’s stories: Manifest—A Town with a rich past and a bright future.

Abilene Tucker feels abandoned. Her father has put her on a train, sending her off to live with an old friend for the summer while he works a railroad job. Armed only with a few possessions and her list of universals, Abilene jumps off the train in Manifest, Kansas, aiming to learn about the boy her father once was.
Having heard stories about Manifest, Abilene is disappointed to find that it’s just a dried-up, worn-out old town. But her disappointment quickly turns to excitement when she discovers a hidden cigar box full of mementos, including some old letters that mention a spy known as the Rattler. These mysterious letters send Abilene and her new friends, Lettie and Ruthanne, on an honest-to-goodness spy hunt, even though they are warned to “Leave Well Enough Alone.”
Abilene throws all caution aside when she heads down the mysterious Path to Perdition to pay a debt to the reclusive Miss Sadie, a diviner who only tells stories from the past. It seems that Manifest’s history is full of colorful and shadowy characters—and long-held secrets. The more Abilene hears, the more determined she is to learn just what role her father played in that history. And as Manifest’s secrets are laid bare one by one, Abilene begins to weave her own story into the fabric of the town.

Powerful in its simplicity and rich in historical detail, Clare Vanderpool’s debut is a gripping story of loss and redemption. (Plot summary from Goodreads.)

The setting and the voice of this story were just fantastic. I love the way Vanderpool weaved the past in with Abilene’s present so seamlessly. You felt her heartache with the absence of her father, and you felt that same heartache for the town that had lost so much years before. The way Abilene’s journey through the past leads to her own understanding and to the town beginning to heal itself is rich and beautiful – just what you’d expect from a Newbery winner.

Learn more about Clare Vanderpool here.