Moon Over Manifest

This Newbery  Medal winner is a first novel for author Clare Vanderpool.

The novel is set in Manifest, Kansas in 1936. Yes, it is historical fiction – one of my favorite genres! Abilene Tucker is shipped to this small town to live with Shady Howard, a pastor with a shady past.  Abilene is looking for a place to hide her treasures when she pulls up a loose floorboard only to find that someone else had used it to hide their treasures. What follows is an enchanting story where Abilene and her friends, Lettie and Ruthann, embark on a spy hunt to find the Rattler. Miss Sadie, a diviner, and Hattie Mae, the town reporter, serve as guides to Abilene on her quest for discovering the past. She gets to know some people from Manifest’s past (1918), Ned and Jinx. There is a wonderful twist to the story.

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The Underneath

Meet two of the main characters in this book, a calico cat and a blood hound –

“There is nothing lonelier than a cat who has been loved, at least for a while, and then abandoned on the side of the road. A small calico cat. The family, the one she lived with, has left her in this old and forgotten forest, this forest where the rain is soaking into her soft fur.”

“Ranger cornered a bobcat, a beast with glowing eyes. …just as Gar Face aimed at the cat,    …Ranger sensed that something was wrong. He moved and Gar Face shot Ranger instead. There had been no apologies on the part of the man, just a swift kit that burned as hot as the bullet lodged in his leg.

“You stupid dog!” the man snarled.

Book overview from Google Books

An old hound that has been chained up at his hateful owner’s run-down shack, and two kittens born underneath the house, endure separation, danger, and many other tribulations in their quest to be reunited and free.

Kathy Appelt audio