Review: Moon Over Manifest

This one's a winner.

No, seriously, it won the Newbery Medal, and what's more, it won a place in my heart.

This is a story of a girl named Abilene who is sent to live in Manifest for the summer, the town that her father spent some time in when he was a little older than her. She feels abandoned, but she hopes to maybe learn more about who her father was while she's there. At first it seems like a worn-out town that has no details for he of her father's past, but soon she fines something else of interest: a hidden cigar box full of mementos and old letters that talk of a spy. Soon she heads down the mysterious "Path to Perdition" to pay a debt to the strange Miss Sadie who begins to tell her stories of the past, a past, it seems, that holds many secrets.

My quick description, largely taken from the back of the book, doesn't do the book justice. The characters pull you into the story and hold you there until the end. This book is successful because it makes you care about the characters, something I have always touted as the mark of a truly good book. And the plot itself is engaging, twisting, and satisfying. The book weaves multiple narratives that the reader must follow, and wants to follow.

This book deals with perspective and judgement. Not all is as it appears and Abilene, though she knows many things, also has a lot of learning to do. And we learn with her. The people around her aren't flat; they are complex individuals. Judgements we may make of individuals or events are certain to change as we learn more about them.

What age range would I give this? I don't know. Abilene is 12, but places I've checked say it's for ages 8 and up. Certainly I would want your child to be old enough to where you could talk with them about death, prejudice, and alcohol (the setting is 1918 - 1936, WWI, KKK, and Prohibition Era). But these shouldn't deter an adult from reading this book and it is a book of such worth that I would hope, if you have children, that you would find the time to read this book with them and talk about it. You know your child and what they are capable of understanding. There is much to be learned here on many subjects. It is also good to help your child understand complex multiple narratives.

This book is a definite recommend to anyone who enjoys reading anything. In my mind the best books have incredible writing, complex, interesting, and mainly likable characters, and a deep well-thought-out plot. And this book has it all.