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Moon Over Manifest
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Moon Over Manifest (2010) (edit title/settings)

by Clare Vanderpool (Author) (edit contributors)

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Clare Vanderpool does an amazing job giving readers just enough clues for the continuous inferences that readers will find themselves making through the many twists and turns in this novel. I love the spunky, fun-loving characters in Manifest - many of us can identify with such "universals"... read more

Summary edit see section history

Abilene Tucker traveled by train to Manifest, Kansas. Her father, Gideon arranged for Abilene to stay with his friend, Shady, while Gideon worked a railroad job in Iowa.
On her first night in Manifest, she found a cigar box with a homemade map, a cork, a fishhook, a silver... read more (warning: may contain spoilers)

Abilene Tucker traveled by train to Manifest, Kansas. Her father, Gideon arranged for Abilene to stay with his friend, Shady, while Gideon worked a railroad job in Iowa.
On her first night in Manifest, she found a cigar box with a homemade map, a cork, a fishhook, a silver dollar, a key, and wooden baby doll and several letters written by a man named Ned to Jinx. She went to school on the last day and met two girls, Lettie and Ruthanne. They came over to Shady’s house after school. Abilene showed them the spy map she had found in the cigar box. Lettie and Ruthanne said they should look for the “Rattler”. So they set out to look for suspects. On the first night, however, she lost her most precious possession, a compass her father had given her. After Lettie and Ruthanne left, she went back to the cemetery where they had looked for clues. Strangely, she saw it hanging with some wind chimes outside Miss Sadie’s Diving parlor. Abilene stood on a pot to reach it, but the pot broke. Terrified, she ran all the way back to Shady’s home.
Abilene went back to the divining parlor the next day, but the compass was not with the wind chimes like it was the day before. Miss Sadie came out and said that since she was not as strong as she used to be, she would make a deal: if Abilene came to her house to garden and do the yard work, she would give the compass back. As Abilene worked, Miss Sadie told Abilene stories about Manifest in 1918. Using Miss Sadie’s stories and the letters inside the cigar box, she learned that Shady was friends with two boys, Ned and Jinx. Ned, who was a high school track star, was sent to fight in World War 1. But there was no mention of her father, Gideon. Abilene was dying for just one detail about how he was connected to Manifest. Abilene also became more and more attached to Jinx in the stories, wondering if Jinx was her father. Jinx fled the town after Ned was killed in battle because he thought he was a jinx to his friends. The date and place where Ned died was engraved on the compass her father had given her: St. Dizier, October 8, 1918. Her father, Gideon, was Jinx! She sent a telegram to Gideon. He came back, and Abilene and Gideon spent the rest of their life happily in Manifest, a town with a rich past and a bright future.

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Quotes edit see section history

  • “( I'm from) all over. My daddy says its not down on any map. True places never are.”
    Abeline Tucker
  • “Gideon says a rose is a rose. But when it comes down to it, there's some more rosy and some more thorny. I didn't know yet if she was rose or thorn...”
    Abilene Tucker
  • “But then, hard times are a penny for plenty. They call it a Depression, but I'd say it's a downright rut and the whole country's in it. (p.13)”
    Abilene Tucker
  • Popular Highlights from Kindle Customers
  • Memories were like sunshine. They warmed you up and left a pleasant glow, but you couldn’t hold them.
    Highlighted by 36 Kindle customers
  • I thought I knew a thing or two about people. Even had my list of universals. But I wondered. Maybe the world wasn’t made of universals that could be summed up in neat little packages. Maybe there were just people. People who were tired and hurt and lonely and kind in their own way and their own time.
    Highlighted by 28 Kindle customers
  • The Lord himself knew the power of a good story. How it can reach out and wrap around a person like a warm blanket.”
    Highlighted by 27 Kindle customers
  • “When there is suffering, we look for a reason. That reason is easiest found within oneself.”
    Highlighted by 25 Kindle customers
  • If there is such a thing as a universal—and I wasn’t ready to throw all of mine out the window—it’s that there is power in a story. And if someone pays you such a kindness as to make up a tale so you’ll enjoy a gingersnap, you go along with that story and enjoy every last bite.
    Highlighted by 25 Kindle customers
  • Start with the word manifest. It’s a verb as well as a noun. Look it up.”
    Highlighted by 23 Kindle customers
  • “Who would dream that one can love without being crushed under the weight of it?” Hot tears burned in my eyes. Being loved could be crushing too.
    Highlighted by 17 Kindle customers
  • “Elam bouzshda gramen ze.” I poked my head up from the dust. “Say again?” “It is Gypsy. It means the person you encounter is often more than the person you see.”
    Highlighted by 15 Kindle customers
  • I’m reminded of a line in a book I read in high school. “It is not down in any map; true places never are.”
    Highlighted by 14 Kindle customers
  • Hope is something most of us have been none too familiar with lately. Some men try to fight it off like a bad cold. Others let it wrap around them like a blanket. Me? It creeps quietly into my dreams and it looks like Pop, and you, and home.
    Highlighted by 14 Kindle customers
Show all 13 quotes from this book

Organizations edit see section history

First Sentence edit see section history

The movement of the train rocked me like a lullaby.

Glossary edit see section history

  • manifest: Noun: A list of passengers on a ship. Verb: To reveal, to make known

Series & Lists edit see section history

This book is in 2013 Iowa High School Battle of the Books. (authoritative list)
This book is in Kirkus Reviews: 2010 Best Children's Books. (authoritative list)

Authors & Contributors edit see section history

  1. Clare Vanderpool (Author)

First Edition edit see section history

Original Language: English
Publisher: Delacorte Books for Young Readers
Country: USA
Publication Date: October 12, 2010
ISBN: 978-0385738835
Page Count: 368

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Notes for Parents edit see section history

Reading Level: Ages 9-12

We understand and make meaning of text through a cultural lens of background knowledge. This book can be enjoyed on a basic plot line level--abandoned young girl, mysteries, and quirky characters. However, readers can create greater meaning and a deeper level of understanding if they have some background knowledge of America during the Great Depression of the 1930s, Prohibition, and World War I.

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