Genre 5- Moon Over Manifest

Vanderpool, Clare. Moon Over Manifest. New York: Random House, 2011.

ISBN: 978-0-385-90750-7

PLOT SUMMARY

Moon Over Manifest a story about a little girl placed during the depression. The little girl, Abilene finds herself in the city of Manifest ‘waiting’ for her father to come pick her up at the end of the summer. While in Manifest, Abilene has a need to learn everything she can about her father and who he was! In the process of learning about her dad, she stumbles upon a box hidden under some floorboards in her bedroom and the adventure begins. Taken in by her new friends Lettie and Ruthanne, the girls begin the search for the ‘Rattler’. Vanderpool starts this novel off very slow but once the girls are warned to ‘leave well enough alone’ the story starts to pick up.

CRITICAL ANALYSIS

My own critique with this story is that it takes quite a few pages to get into the book. It took me until about 80 pages in before I really began feeling the story. Though the story is absolutely wonderful, I do not think students will be able to stick with a story that long if they aren’t intrigued. Also, the characters in this story are absolutely amazing! When reading this story, I felt as if I had actually met the people being described. There is also a character list/description located in the front of the book, which is very helpful to students! Vanderpool also does a great job of alternating points of view. Most of the story Abilene is narrating in the ‘present’ and the story will often switch over to two boys in 1917. The process of including ‘flashbacks’ in a story for children can be difficult but Moon Over Manifest makes these transitions very easy to follow! Overall, I will be adding this to my library for my high readers. Vanderpool does a great job of incorporating parts of history into a well-written novel.

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REVIEW EXCERPT(S)

Book List- “Vanderpool weaves humor and sorrow into a complex tale involving murders, orphans, bootlegging, and a mother in hiding. With believable dialogue, vocabulary and imagery appropriate to time and place, and well-developed characters.” —Kethleen Isaacs

School Library Journal- “This thoroughly enjoyable, unique page-turner is a definite winner.” – Renee Steinberg

CONNECTIONS

Moon Over Manifest has a ton of characters to keep tract of! Students could create a story board and summarize each character on the board. Also, after summarizing, students could attempt to match each others summarizes to the character it describes.