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A review by jessdlibrarian
Moon Over Manifest by Clare Vanderpool
3.0
As I began reading Moon Over Manifest, I was very disappointed. The beginning was slow and boring. I couldn’t imagine why it had been picked as a Newberry Award winner, especially after reading Gauch’s article on “What Makes a Good Newberry Novel?” She claims at the beginning of the article that, “At the heart of every Newberry is a remarkable character . . . not just a character who carries the weight of the story, but a character original in voice, in spirit, in ideas” (Gauch 52). So, as I explored Vanderpool’s novel, I looked for these qualities. Certainly, Abilene didn’t have them. Gauch’s second claim regarding Newberry novels is that “The stage . . . is key. It has to be right for the hero or heroine, because it is his or her world” (54). Again, I didn’t see it. Abilene seems all wrong for this town. She wants adventure. She wants exhilaration like jumping off of the railroad tracks. She doesn’t like to follow the rules, and she is tired of being the new kid in town. This town is bone dry, literally. It’s washed up. All of the stereotypes are the same as ones she’s encountered time after time.
Yet as I thought about it and as I continued reading, I realized how wrong I was. From the minute Abilene jumped off the train, she was bound to encounter the adventure she longed for. She entered a town that was dry, but it needed watered. She was the water to help it grow again. She was exactly what Manifest needed. Gauch’s third key is that the “Newberry winner . . . moves. The author meets the character somewhere sends her . . . from here to there . . . but invariably we feel the wind in the wondrous wings of Newberry characters as they move through their story” (55-56). We met Abilene when she has been discarded by her father in a strange town where she knows no one. But, she has a quest. She wants to know more about her father and his connection to Manifest. From the beginning of the novel, that is what I wanted to discover. That is the key that kept me reading – the praxis of the story (Gauch 57).
Gauch, Patricia Lee. "What Makes a Good Newbery Novel?." Horn Book Magazine 87.4 (2011): 52-58. Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. Web. 3 Sept. 2011.
Vanderpool, Clare. Moon Over Manifest. New York: Delacorte, 2010. Print.
Yet as I thought about it and as I continued reading, I realized how wrong I was. From the minute Abilene jumped off the train, she was bound to encounter the adventure she longed for. She entered a town that was dry, but it needed watered. She was the water to help it grow again. She was exactly what Manifest needed. Gauch’s third key is that the “Newberry winner . . . moves. The author meets the character somewhere sends her . . . from here to there . . . but invariably we feel the wind in the wondrous wings of Newberry characters as they move through their story” (55-56). We met Abilene when she has been discarded by her father in a strange town where she knows no one. But, she has a quest. She wants to know more about her father and his connection to Manifest. From the beginning of the novel, that is what I wanted to discover. That is the key that kept me reading – the praxis of the story (Gauch 57).
Gauch, Patricia Lee. "What Makes a Good Newbery Novel?." Horn Book Magazine 87.4 (2011): 52-58. Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. Web. 3 Sept. 2011.
Vanderpool, Clare. Moon Over Manifest. New York: Delacorte, 2010. Print.