LATEST SALES & OFFERS: PROMOTIONS
Starred review, BOOKLIST, October 15, 2010: After a life of riding the rails with her father, 12-year-old Abilene can't understand why he has sent her away to stay with Pastor Shady Howard in Manifest, Missouri, a town he left years earlier; but over the summer she pieces together his story. In 1936, Manifest is a town worn down by sadness, drought, and the Depression, but it is more welcoming to newcomers than it was in 1918, when it was a conglomeration ofcoal-mining immigrants who were kept apart by habit, company practice, and prejudice. Abilene quickly finds friends and uncovers a local mystery. Their summerlong spy hunt reveals deep-seated secrets and helps restore residents' faith in the bright future once promised on the town's sign. Abilene's first-person narrative is intertwined with newspaper columns from 1917 to 1918 and stories told by a diviner, Miss Sadie, while letters home from a soldier fighting in WWI add yet another narrative layer. Vanderpool weaves humor and sorrow into a complex tale involving murders, orphans, bootlegging, and a mother in hiding. With believable dialogue, vocabulary and imagery appropriate to time and place, and welldeveloped characters, this rich and rewarding first novel is like sucking on a butterscotch. Smooth and sweet. Starred review, KIRKUS REVIEWS, September 15, 2010: Readers will cherish every word up to the heartbreaking yet hopeful and deeply gratifying ending. Starred review, PUBLISHERS WEEKLY, September 27, 2010: Replete with historical details and surprises, Vanderpool's debut delights, while giving insight into family and community. Review, THE BULLETIN OF THE CENTER FOR CHILDREN'S BOOKS, November 2010: Ingeniously plotted and gracefully told. From the Hardcover edition. Starred review, BOOKLIST, October 15, 2010: After a life of riding the rails with her father, 12-year-old Abilene can t understand why he has sent her away to stay with Pastor Shady Howard in Manifest, Missouri, a town he left years earlier; but over the summer she pieces together his story. In 1936, Manifest is a town worn down by sadness, drought, and the Depression, but it is more welcoming to newcomers than it was in 1918, when it was a conglomeration ofcoal-mining immigrants who were kept apart by habit, company practice, and prejudice. Abilene quickly finds friends and uncovers a local mystery. Their summerlong spy hunt reveals deep-seated secrets and helps restore residents faith in the bright future once promised on the town s sign. Abilene s first-person narrative is intertwined with newspaper columns from 1917 to 1918 and stories told by a diviner, Miss Sadie, while letters home from a soldier fighting in WWI add yet another narrative layer. Vanderpool weaves humor and sorrow into a complex tale involving murders, orphans, bootlegging, and a mother in hiding. With believable dialogue, vocabulary and imagery appropriate to time and place, and welldeveloped characters, this rich and rewarding first novel is like sucking on a butterscotch. Smooth and sweet. Starred review, KIRKUS REVIEWS, September 15, 2010: Readers will cherish every word up to the heartbreaking yet hopeful and deeply gratifying ending. Starred review, PUBLISHERS WEEKLY, September 27, 2010: Replete with historical details and surprises, Vanderpool's debut delights, while giving insight into family and community. Review, THE BULLETIN OF THE CENTER FOR CHILDREN'S BOOKS, November 2010: Ingeniously plotted and gracefully told. From the Hardcover edition.
