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4.0 AVERAGE
4.0 AVERAGE
One of THE best books I have read!! LOVED it!! Brings Richard Peck's A Long Way From Chicago to mind.
Publisher Description
Winner of the 2011 Newbery Award.
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.
From the Hardcover edition.
Publisher Description
Winner of the 2011 Newbery Award.
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.
From the Hardcover edition.
An amazing book! I like how it was told, even though it got a bit confusing at times because I listened to the audiobook. You really get to know the characters and it all comes together very nicely at the end with some almost tears. :)
meh. i guess i'll try to finish this one again someday.
did not like the folksy vernancular that rang false in my ears - winning a newbery for a first time children's author set some pretty high expectations for me, and thus I was just all the more disappointed when reading the metaphor strewn wordy prose. Blah.
did not like the folksy vernancular that rang false in my ears - winning a newbery for a first time children's author set some pretty high expectations for me, and thus I was just all the more disappointed when reading the metaphor strewn wordy prose. Blah.
Terrific book so far; my favorite Newbery for some time, I think. I love [b:When You Reach Me|5310515|When You Reach Me|Rebecca Stead|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1267379013s/5310515.jpg|6608018] to death, but this might be even better. Lovely combination of suspense, history, and growing up in a difficult time (and in a difficult way of life).
I have said before that I love me some good historical fiction- I did not have a very good history education, so one of the only ways I learn about aspects of history that I missed is through reading. Moon over Manifest takes place in two different historical time periods: 1936 (The Great Depression and Dust Bowl) and 1918 (World War I), so it is very full of information. I really enjoyed that so much historical elements was put into this novel without being overwhelming- I learned a lot and enjoyed myself while doing it.
The story revolves around Abilene Tucker who has been sent to Manifest, Kansas by her father. At first, Abilene fights the transition at first, but once she finds a box of letters in her room and starts investigating about the two boys in the letters, she becomes intrigued with the little town and things start to come together.
The whole story is beautifully written and so quotable! I did feel that the story was a bit slow at the beginning, but as Abilene becomes comfortable in her new town, the story picks up.
The story revolves around Abilene Tucker who has been sent to Manifest, Kansas by her father. At first, Abilene fights the transition at first, but once she finds a box of letters in her room and starts investigating about the two boys in the letters, she becomes intrigued with the little town and things start to come together.
The whole story is beautifully written and so quotable! I did feel that the story was a bit slow at the beginning, but as Abilene becomes comfortable in her new town, the story picks up.
Review originally posted here.
Manifest is a town that has seen better days. Although not nearly as bad off as some other midwestern towns during the Depression, the people have lost hope and have little binding them together. Abilene enters this atmosphere longing to find her father's footprints on the town and inquires of the "diviner", Miss Sadie. What she gets is the story of a boy named Jinx and the town of Manifest in 1918. I confess that it was this story that kept me reading the book. Miss Sadie paints a vivid picture of the town and life in small town America in the early 20th century. There were times I couldn't help thinking of The Music Man, particularly as Jinx is quite the conman. The characters of the town in 1918 were real and vivid, if a tad cliche'. It was them I was invested in and made me care about what happened to those who were still around in the 1936 portion of the story. Jinx and Ned both captured my imagination the same way they did Abilene's.
Abilene's story was not quite as enjoyable to me. I never really connected with her character or cared much about what happened to her. She is very much your typical middle grade Depression era novel heroine. Spunky, street smart, missing at least one parent, living in a small town, looking to connect with her dad. This story has been told so many times I am heartily sick of it. I found myself skimming the parts where the story focused on her for mention of the people from the 1918 story and to move on more quickly to the next part of that. It was almost as if her entire function was to be the vehicle for the older story, making her a cypher. Nothing about her was all that memorable.
I enjoyed Vanderpool's descriptive voice and use of language.
Overall I found the book charming and fun. There are not that many books for middle graders that depict the World War I era at all. The fact that this is one separates it from the sea of other MG Depression era novels it might otherwise have been lost in.
Manifest is a town that has seen better days. Although not nearly as bad off as some other midwestern towns during the Depression, the people have lost hope and have little binding them together. Abilene enters this atmosphere longing to find her father's footprints on the town and inquires of the "diviner", Miss Sadie. What she gets is the story of a boy named Jinx and the town of Manifest in 1918. I confess that it was this story that kept me reading the book. Miss Sadie paints a vivid picture of the town and life in small town America in the early 20th century. There were times I couldn't help thinking of The Music Man, particularly as Jinx is quite the conman. The characters of the town in 1918 were real and vivid, if a tad cliche'. It was them I was invested in and made me care about what happened to those who were still around in the 1936 portion of the story. Jinx and Ned both captured my imagination the same way they did Abilene's.
Abilene's story was not quite as enjoyable to me. I never really connected with her character or cared much about what happened to her. She is very much your typical middle grade Depression era novel heroine. Spunky, street smart, missing at least one parent, living in a small town, looking to connect with her dad. This story has been told so many times I am heartily sick of it. I found myself skimming the parts where the story focused on her for mention of the people from the 1918 story and to move on more quickly to the next part of that. It was almost as if her entire function was to be the vehicle for the older story, making her a cypher. Nothing about her was all that memorable.
I enjoyed Vanderpool's descriptive voice and use of language.
Overall I found the book charming and fun. There are not that many books for middle graders that depict the World War I era at all. The fact that this is one separates it from the sea of other MG Depression era novels it might otherwise have been lost in.
LOVED this depression era coming-of-age story of sweet, imaginative Abilene, who has been sent to her father’s hometown for the summer while he looks for work. Her longing for her daddy and fear that he will not return drive her to research the town’s history for some glimpse of her elusive father. Fortunately, she has landed among townsfolk as kind as they are colorful. And through Abilene’s research we enjoy stories from the early 1900’s---how the founding immigrants of the town fight the mining company and the KKK, how the Spanish influenza ravages the country, and how the young men of the town navigate the horrors of WWI. Several times this poignant, charming story brought tears to my eyes---actually, one part had them rolling down my cheeks. I feared the ending, but it was just exactly right. What a hope & light filled book! Must read! The Newbery Medal was well-deserved. (Perfect narrator from Audible.)
The Newbery winner for 2011. It was cute. It took me until about halfway to realize why it was a Newbery, because honestly I didn't feel like the writing style merited such a prestigious YA award. But by the end, after all of the loose ends were tied up, I knew and I definitely approve. It's more than just a sweet story, which was what I thought it was at first. It's a pretty quick read, so I recommend it for light reading that you'll really enjoy, and actually feel like you've accomplished something without having to struggle through a classic or something. It left me feeling good, and I like that.
Works in two different time periods, 1918 and 1936. The main story, in 1936, is narrated in the first person by 12-year-old Abilene Tucker, who has been sent by her father, Gideon, to stay in his hometown of Manifest, Kansas for the summer, after he's laid off from his railroad job. In trying to figure out why she's been sent away, and then why there seems to be no trace of Gideon left in town, Abilene discovers a secret cache of letters and mementos that put her on the trail of a mystery from 1918.
When she meets the mysterious Miss Sadie, diviner, the events of 1918 are gradually revealed in Miss Sadie's third- person account of the town, the mine, the immigrants who made up the citizenry, and the con artist drifter who comes to town and says, the boy known as Jinx.
All this is woven together as Abilene learns that her father was the boy, Jinx, that he saved the town with a con that allowed the town to keep a valuable vein of ore out of the rich mine owner's hands, that he left because he felt responsible for his best friend Ned Gillen's, enrollment in the Army and death in World War I, and that Ned was the son of Miss Sadie, who had to give him up on coming to America and by the time she was able to return, four years later, he had been happily adopted by the Gillens, so she stayed in town just to be near her son.
When she meets the mysterious Miss Sadie, diviner, the events of 1918 are gradually revealed in Miss Sadie's third- person account of the town, the mine, the immigrants who made up the citizenry, and the con artist drifter who comes to town and says, the boy known as Jinx.
All this is woven together as Abilene learns that her father was the boy, Jinx, that he saved the town with a con that allowed the town to keep a valuable vein of ore out of the rich mine owner's hands, that he left because he felt responsible for his best friend Ned Gillen's, enrollment in the Army and death in World War I, and that Ned was the son of Miss Sadie, who had to give him up on coming to America and by the time she was able to return, four years later, he had been happily adopted by the Gillens, so she stayed in town just to be near her son.
Abilene and her father Gideon are drifters during World War 1 and the Great Depression. After Abilene suffers a bad injury her father is shook up and sends her to live in Manifest, Kansas with his "preacher" friend Shady. Gideon starts telling her stories about Manifest, but once there, Abilene can't find any hint that Gideon had ever lived there. She feels abandoned. Abilene finds a mysterious cigar box under her bedroom floorboard full of letters from a soldier named Ned to a boy named Jinx and some miscellaneous trinkets. One letter makes reference to a spy called the Rattler. Abilene and her friends try to solve the mystery of the Rattler. Meanwhile, Abilene starts doing odd jobs for the local, mysterious diviner and fortune teller, Miss Sadie who tells Abilene the story of Ned and Jinx.
I loved this Newbery Award winner and hope others pick it up to enjoy it. I enjoyed the flashback stories, the mystery, and young Abilene's journey to figure out her roots in a town where very few residents have roots.
Grades 5-7.
I loved this Newbery Award winner and hope others pick it up to enjoy it. I enjoyed the flashback stories, the mystery, and young Abilene's journey to figure out her roots in a town where very few residents have roots.
Grades 5-7.