Moon Over Manifest by Clare Vanderpool

Reviewed by Miss Dewey at Orenda

FIVE PAW PRINTS!!  It's the time of the Great Depression and Abilene Tucker and her father Gideon have always lived their lives by "riding the rails", looking for work and looking for food, but they have always been together.  But now it's 1936 and Abilene is 12 years old.  Gideon thinks it's time for his daughter to have a chance to "grow up" so he sends her to the town of Manifest, Kansas.  Gideon spent part of his childhood in Manifest and he thinks Pastor Howard (also known as Shady) would be a good person to leave in charge of Abilene while he works building railroad tracks in Iowa.  Though Abilene doesn't agree (she feels abandoned) with her father's opinion, she doesn't have a choice and she moves in with Shady.  While in Manifest, Abilene hopes to learn more about her father, who doesn't talk much about his youth, but instead she becomes friends with two local girls and ends up working for an old woman who doesn't have any family.  While spending time with Lettie and Ruthanne, they discover a mystery going back as far as World War I.  (Her time with Miss Sadie, the local fortune teller, is where she learns all about the people of the town from the past and the present.)  When you hear people say something is so good that "you'll laugh and you'll cry", you normally roll your eyes at the exaggeration of the statement.  This is one story where this description is NOT an exaggeration.  When I first started reading this story I thought I was going to have a terrible time keeping track of all the different characters from the different time periods.  Not only was the story so well told that I didn't have any troubles, but I didn't even need the list of characters in the beginning of the book.  I'm not sure words can fully capture how good a book this is.  You laugh when the underdog wins and you cry when the world comes crashing down on the same underdog.  But, to say anything else would completely give the story away.  RUN, don't walk to find a copy of this book and don't put it down until you finish reading.  To learn more about the author, visit http://www.clarevanderpool.com/home.html.
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Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice by Phillip Hoose

Posted by Miss Dewey at Orenda

Five paw prints! She was small and quiet and she looked like a good kid who would do what she was told. Well, she was all of those things, except for one: she would not always do what she was told. She was told she had to give up her seat on a bus. But not just any bus, this was a bus in Montgomery, Alabama in 1955. So why would she have to give up her seat? Claudette Colvin was a black teenager growing up in the segregated south. But Claudette knew her rights and she knew she shouldn't have to give up her seat to a white woman. You might be wondering why Claudette's story is so important. It's important because she refused to give up her seat nine months before Rosa Parks. Not only did she refuse to give up her seat, she challenged the laws of Montgomery, Alabama stating that being separate can really be equal. AND SHE WON! I love this book. Growing up I had heard there was a girl who challenged the bus rules in Montgomery, Alabama before Rosa Parks, but I could never find any information about who this girl was. I was beginning to believe I had imagined the story, but the author managed to find Claudette and interview her in New York City. Most people know the story of the many adults who helped end segregation, but not many people know of the children who also helped. Hopefully, with this book, now more people will learn about Claudette and the sacrifices she and other children made. This isn't the only wonderful book by Philip Hoose. If you would like to read more books by him, visit: http://www.philliphoose.com/ to see his other award winning titles.
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