STORYTIME: Moon Over Manifest by Clare Vanderpool

This year's recipient of the John Newbery Medal, Moon Over Manifest is a thick but oh-so-inventive new novel by up-and-coming author Clare Vanderpool.

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STORYTIME: Moon Over Manifest by Clare Vanderpool

POSTED: Tuesday, August 2, 2011, 3:00 PM

Each week, Dylan Rhys Williams reviews a new children's book that'll twinkle the imaginations of kids and kids at heart.

This year’s recipient of the John Newbery Medal, Moon Over Manifest (Delacorte, 2010) is a thick but oh-so-inventive new novel by up-and-coming author Clare Vanderpool. Written like a nonfiction memoir spliced with faux-advertisements and newsclippings, the novel follows the coming-of-age story of Abilene Tucker, left by her father to live for the summer of 1936 with an old family friend in iconic Manifest, Kan. Abilene makes friends in Manifest and has a few run-ins with the town pariah, Miss Sadie the Diviner, who begins to tell her piecemeal the story of Jinx, an enigmatic tramper who finds himself living in Manifest in 1917. When Abilene and her friends’ various present-day adventures and Miss Sadie's narrative begin to overlap, Abilene uncovers truths about Manifest that change not only her conception of the town and its people, but of her familial history and, ultimately, her own desires for independence and security.

Half Elizabeth Enright and half J. R. R. Tolkien, the story is intricately woven and incredibly sharp. The thought Vanderpool has invested in her story is evident in its historical complexity, and the fast-paced narration (alternating at times between third- and first-person) keeps readers engaged in the story as the mystery of Jinx and the town of Manifest unravels before our eyes. Kids will enjoy the modern-day antics of Abilene and her friends and the mystery surrounding Miss Sadie. Adults will find the complex fictional history and rich town characters engaging. A Southern story of family and belonging — it's like Faulkner for kids!

(dylan.williams@citypaper.net)

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