Reviews

In Clare Vanderpool's captivating Newbery Medal-winning novel (Delacorte, 2010), Abilene spends the summer in Manifest, KS, her father's hometown. With the help of an interim pastor and Miss Sadie, a diviner, Abilene makes friends and discovers the community's secrets. She finds a box of treasures, and the stories behind them (told by Miss Sadie and through columns in the local newspaper) offer insights into the town's citizens and answer Abilene's questions about her father. Jenna Lamia's narration is spot-on, adroitly capturing Abilene in a tale that jumps back and forth between 1918 and 1936. Kirby Heyborne and Cassandra Campbell capably recount the letters of a young soldier serving in France during World War I and narrate the newspaper stories. (c) Copyright 2011. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Starred review, BOOKLIST, October 15, 2010:
After a life of riding the rails with her father, 12-year-old Abilene can't understand why he has sent her away to stay with Pastor Shady Howard in Manifest, Missouri, a town he left years earlier; but over the summer she pieces together his story. In 1936, Manifest is a town worn down by sadness, drought, and the Depression, but it is more welcoming to newcomers than it was in 1918, when it was a conglomeration of
coal-mining immigrants who were kept apart by habit, company practice, and prejudice. Abilene quickly finds friends and uncovers a local mystery. Their summerlong "spy hunt" reveals deep-seated secrets and helps restore residents' faith in the bright future once promised on the town's sign. Abilene's first-person narrative is intertwined with newspaper columns from 1917 to 1918 and stories told by a diviner, Miss Sadie, while letters home from a soldier fighting in WWI add yet another narrative layer. 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 welldeveloped characters, this rich and rewarding first novel is "like sucking on a butterscotch. Smooth and sweet."

Starred review, KIRKUS REVIEWS, September 15, 2010:
"Readers will cherish every word up to the heartbreaking yet hopeful
and deeply gratifying ending."

Starred review, PUBLISHERS WEEKLY, September 27, 2010:
"Replete with historical details and surprises, Vanderpool's debut delights,
while giving insight into family and community."

Review, THE BULLETIN OF THE CENTER FOR CHILDREN'S BOOKS, November 2010:
"Ingeniously plotted and gracefully told."