Moon over Manifest by Clare Vanderpool 351 pages Juvenile Fiction

Twelve-year-old Abilene Tucker, the daughter of a drifter, jumps a train at Manifest, Missouri in the summer of 1936. She does not know why her father sent her to stay with Pastor Shady Howard except that it was the town that he left years earlier. Over the summer she pieces together his story and discovers a local mystery. Vanderpool weaves humor and sorrow into a complex tale involving murders, orphans, miners, and bootlegging. The author struck gold with her first novel for children, but I don't believe that it is destined to live on as a favorite medal winner. This dense historical fiction novel drags a bit and will require a dedicated reader to stick with it.