March 2, 2011
“Bootleggers, train-hoppers, coal miners, fortune tellers, conmen, firecrackers! 2011 Newberry Winner Moon Over Manifest has it all! Rough-and-tumble pre-teen Abilene Tucker arrives in the mixing-pot town of Manifest, Kansas (1936) fated to collect their heartbreaking, heartening and madcap stories and to unearth her own enigmatic family history. With the help of a box full of trinkets (skeleton keys, Russian nesting dolls, fishing lures), a bundle of war letters, the ramblings of Hattie Mae, reporter about town, the elaborate reveries of Miss Sadie the Diviner (which comprise half the novel) and the testimony of a colorful cast of townsfolk, Abilene pieces together a tale that began long ago, in 1918, the year her mysterious father made his own mark on Manifest. A beautiful look at home, history, mystery and the mechanics of memory. Grown-ups will treasure this one too!”—Green Bean Books, Portland