The movement of the train rocked me like a lullaby. I closed my eyes to the dusty countryside and imagined the sign Irsquo;d seen only in Gideonrsquo;s stories: Manifestmdash;A Town with a rich past and a bright future.160;Abilene Tucker feels abandoned. Her father has put her on a train, sending her off to live with an old friend for the summer while he works a railroad job. Armed only with a few possessions and her list of universals, Abilene jumps off the train in Manifest, Kansas, aiming to learn about the boy her father once was.Having heard stories about Manifest, Abilene is disappointed to find that itrsquo;s just a dried-up, worn-out old town. But her disappointment quickly turns to excitement when she discovers a hidden cigar box full of mementos, including some old letters that mention a spy known as the Rattler. These mysterious letters send Abilene and her new friends, Lettie and Ruthanne, on an honest-to-goodness spy hunt, even though they are warned to ldquo;Leave Well Enough Alone.rdquo;Abilene throws all caution aside when she heads down the mysterious Path to Perdition to pay a debt to the reclusive Miss Sadie, a diviner who only tells stories from the past. It seems that Manifestrsquo;s history is full of colorful and shadowy charactersmdash;and long-held secrets. The more Abilene hears, the more determined she is to learn just what role her father played in that history. And as Manifestrsquo;s secrets are laid bare one by one, Abilene begins to weave her own story into the fabric of the town.160;Powerful in its simplicity and rich in historical detail, Clare Vanderpoolrsquo;s debut is a gripping story of loss and redemption.From the Hardcover edition.
An engaging saga overflowing with intriguing stories from people of all ages and backgrounds, the 2011 Newbery Medal winner centers on 12-year-old Abilene Tucker's revelatory summer of 1936 in Manifest, Kansas. After hearing thrilling tales about Manifest from her father, Abilene expected more of the town when she's sent there to live with Pastor Shady Howard. However, it seems to be just a dusty backwater. But when Abilene discovers a cache of old letters in a cigar box, she is plunged into a town mystery that involves events occurring years earlier, during World War I. With a cast of quirky characters, including a mystic named Miss Sadie, this moving, hilarious piece of historical fiction engages and fascinates readers, pulling them back in time.
- Genre: Fiction + Literature Genres, Juvenile Fiction
- Subgenre: Historical / United States / 20th Century, General
- Age: 9-12 years
- Publisher: Yearling Books
- Pages: 351
- Edition: Reprint
- Language: English
- Format: paperback
- Release Date: December 27, 2011
- Date Published: December 27, 2011
- Author: Clare Vanderpool