Laura Lanik's News Auxiliary
April 27, 2012
I hope all of you are enjoying a glorious day today and are celebrating the joys of Spring. The News Auxiliary of the Manifest Herald is taking a break from talking about the news around town to tell you all about Moon Over Manifest, the most recent Newberry Prize winner. I am just tickled pink and knew you would be interested in reading all about it.
Abilene is as sweet as pie and she just arrived here in Manifest, Kansas in 1936. Her daddy decided to send her for the summer and so she is staying over at Shady's place. I heard she found a hidden box in her room containing all sorts of mementos and letters and she is looking for someone called the Rattler. Abilene's favorite thing is a compass that her father gave her, but one night, while out spying with her friends, Lettie and Ruthanne, she lost it. Doesn't that just stink.
Well I want to tell you first off that Abilene found her compass hanging off a porch on the Path to Perdition. She was so scared but she knew she had to get her compass back and so Abilene approached Miss Sadie's Divining Parlor. Well divining is hard work, as you well know, so Abilene was committed to helping out around the house. Lucky for her, Miss Sadie was a great story teller and told Abilene about Manifest during World War I. He stories mainly focused around the two boys Jinx and Ned and their adventures about town in 1917. Ned, like many of the boys in town, signed up and went off to fight in the trenches of the War leaving Jinx brokenhearted and without a friend. Well, adventure always finds someone whose looking and Jinx got caught up in plenty of fun for the times.
I really enjoyed reading the letters Ned sent home and the News Auxiliary from 1917. I loved the characters and there semi-southern feel. So much has changed since then and it is like stepping into a time capsule to try and solve the mystery of the Rattler and trying to figure out who Abilene's father really is. Why, reading this book is almost like taking a step back through time.
Well there you have it folks. I hope you visit (I mean read) Moon over Manifest real soon.
