Summary - Twelve-year-old Abilene Tucker is the daughter of a drifter who, in the summer of 1936, sends her to stay with an old friend in Manifest, Kansas, where he grew up, and where she hopes to find out some things about his past.
Reviews-
Gr 5-8--History and fiction marry beautifully in this lively debut novel. It's as if readers jump off the train in Manifest, KS, in 1936 with Abilene Tucker, 12, the feisty, likable, and perceptive narrator. She is there to live with Pastor Shady Howard, her father's friend, while her father works on the railroad back in Iowa. An equally important story set during World War I is artfully intertwined. Since her mother went off on her own 10 years earlier, Abilene and Gideon have been alone. Though their life together is unsettled, their bond is strong. Shady's place is shabby, but he is welcoming. The mystery about Manifest and Gideon unfolds after Abilene finds a box filled with intriguing keepsakes. It includes a letter dated 1917 to someone named Jinx from Ned Gillen that has a warning, "THE RATTLER is watching." This starts Abilene, with the help of new friends Ruthanne and Lettie, on a search to learn the identity of the pair. The story cleverly shifts back and forth between the two eras. Abilene becomes connected to Miss Sadie, a "diviner" who slowly leads her through the story of Ned and Jinx. Though the girl is lonely, she adjusts to her new life, feeling sure that her father will come for her at summer's end. The Ku Klux Klan and its campaign against the many immigrants working in the coal mines and the deplorable conditions and exploitation of these men provide important background. This thoroughly enjoyable, unique page-turner is a definite winner. - Renee Steinberg
Set in 1936, this memorable coming-of-age story follows 12-year-old Abilene Tucker's unusual summer in her father's hometown of Manifest, Kans., while he's away on a railroad job. Having had an itinerant upbringing, Abilene is eager to connect to her father's childhood, a goal that proves difficult. The immigrant town has become rundown, but is populated with well-developed, idiosyncratic characters and has a dynamic past involving the KKK, an influenza scare, and a bootlegging operation. Manifest's history emerges in stories recounted by Miss Sadie (a Hungarian medium) and in news columns written in 1917 by Hattie Mae Harper, "Reporter About Town." With new friends Lettie and Ruthanne, Abilene pieces together the past, coming to understand, as Miss Sadie says, that "maybe what you're looking for is not so much the mark your daddy made on this town, but the mark the town made on your daddy." Witty, bold, and curious, Abilene is as unforgettable as the other residents of Manifest, and the variety of voices allows the town's small mysteries to bloom. Replete with historical details and surprises, Vanderpool's debut delights, while giving insight into family and community. Ages 9-12. (Oct.) -
And so...
I found this to be a slow starter, even for a voracious historical fiction reader. It covers two different time periods and many young people will find it difficult to keep track of the jumping back and forth between 1918 and 1936. The book entwines the story of two generations, and once accustomed to the time warps, both stories are intriguing and help the reader to understand both the time of the Great War (WW I) and the depression era.
Uses for this book
In the library you could include this selection in a book talk to introduce historical fiction, reading a portion of the opening and having students draw or discuss the time period covered. It is also an excellent study in dual plots and time periods.
References
Vanderpool, Clare. Moon over Manifest. New York: Delacorte Press, 2010.
Summary retrieved from Richardson Public Library Online Catalog, June 22, 2011.
Steinberg, Renee. School Library Journal, Nov2010, Vol. 56 Issue 11, p131-131, 1/4p
Publishers Weekly, 9/27/2010, Vol. 257 Issue 38, p60-60, 1/5p
Photograph retreived from: http://hip.cor.gov/ipac20/ipac.jsp?session=13T30M0064T09.83103&profile=rpl&uri=link=3100007~!424375~!3100001~!3100002&aspect=subtab35&menu=search&ri=4&source=~!horizon&term=Moon+over+Manifest+%2F&index=PALLTI#focus
Printz Award 2004 - The First Part Last
Summary-
Bobby is your classic urban teenaged boy -- impulsive, eager, restless. On his sixteenth birthday he gets some news from his girlfriend, Nia, that changes his life forever. She's pregnant. Bobby's going to be a father. Suddenly things like school and house parties and hanging with friends no longer seem important as they're replaced by visits to Nia's obstetrician and a social worker who says that the only way for Nia and Bobby to lead a normal life is to put their baby up for adoption. With powerful language and keen insight, Johnson looks at the male side of teen pregnancy as she delves into one young man's struggle to figure out what "the right thing" is and then to do it. No matter what the cost.
Reviews -
Feather's birth has completely changed sixteen-year-old Bobby's life. He and his girlfriend, Nia, had planned to put up the baby for adoption, but Feather becomes impossible to relinquish after, as the reader learns at book's end, pregnancy-related eclampsia leaves Nia in an irreversible coma. What elevates this scenario above melodrama is Johnson's unique storytelling strategy: she follows the arc of Bobby's consciousness in alternating short chapters labeled "then" (before Feather's birth) and "now." This allows the reader to measure how far sleep-starved single dad Bobby has fallen, psychically--and how far he's come. While this prequel to the Coretta Scott King Award-winning Heaven isn't bereft of humor (Nia's parents' home is "so neat and clean you could probably make soup in the toilet"), what resonates are the sacrifices Bobby makes for Feather's sake.
In this companion novel, Johnson's fans learn just how Bobby, the single father for whom Marley baby-sits in Heaven, landed in that small town in Ohio. Beginning his story when his daughter, Feather, is just 11 days old, 16-year-old Bobby tells his story in chapters that alternate between the present and the bittersweet past that has brought him to the point of single parenthood. Each nuanced chapter feels like a poem in its economy and imagery; yet the characters--Bobby and the mother of his child, Nia, particularly, but also their parents and friends, and even newborn Feather--emerge fully formed. Bobby tells his parents about the baby ("Not moving and still quiet, my pops just starts to cry") and contrasts his father's reaction with that of Nia's father ("He looks straight ahead like he's watching a movie outside the loft windows"). The way he describes Nia and stands by her throughout the pregnancy conveys to readers what a loving and trustworthy father he promises to be. The only misstep is a chapter from Nia's point of view, which takes readers out of Bobby's capable hands. But as the past and present threads join in the final chapter, readers will only clamor for more about this memorable father-daughter duo--and an author who so skillfully relates the hope in the midst of pain. Ages 12-up. (June)
And so...
This book is written in a style that jumps from "then" to "now" and written in the language of the characters. That is to say, some of them speak like they are on the streets all the time, though all of them are educated adults or students at a prominent high school where proper English is expected. The book does a good job of fleshing out the multiple relationships of a young man who has just become a father and how he deals with his mom, stepdad, dad, the parents of the baby's mother, and his friends. Multifaceted, this book will make connections for a lot of YA readers.
Uses for this book
Lessons on writing dialogue, on multiple plot lines, a book trailer project or book club discussion would all be ways this book could be utilized by a teacher librarian. It also lends itself to studies of different cultures as the familes are of Hispanic and African American descent. A high school health education teacher could use the book trailer to introduce discussions on sexual responsibility or risks of pregnancy.
References
Johnson, Angela. The First Part Last. New York: Simon & Schuster
Summary retrieved from Syndetic Solutions, Inc, Richardson Public Library Online Catalog, June 22, 2011
Beram, Nell. Horn Book Magazine, Jul/Aug2003, Vol. 79 Issue 4, p459-459, 1/3p
Roback, Diane; Brown, Jennifer M.; Bean, Joy; Zaleski, Jeff. Publishers Weekly, 6/16/2003, Vol. 250 Issue 24, p73, 1/7p
Photograph retrieved from http://hip.cor.gov/ipac20/ipac.jsp?session=13T30M0064T09.83103&profile=rpl&uri=link=3100007~!195393~!3100001~!3100002&aspect=subtab35&menu=search&ri=1&source=~!horizon&term=The+first+part+last+%2F&index=PALLTI#focus
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