Moon over Manifest - Making Historical Connections
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Moon Over Manifest by Clare Vanderpool
Lesson Plans by Bridget Baudinet
Part mystery, part coming-of-age tale, Moon Over Manifest follows twelve-year-old Abilene Tucker as she tries to make sense of her father’s past and her own present. Left to stay in Manifest, Kansas with Pastor Shady Howard, Abilene feels abandoned by her father.
Storyboard Description
Historical Fiction books: Moon over Manifest Historical Connections
Storyboard Text
- AMERICAN HISTORY
- During the Great Depression, many Americans struggled to get enough to eat. Children often had to work long days just to earn enough money to survive. Soup kitchens cropped up across the country. Lines for bread and other food handouts could stretch for blocks.
- MOON OVER MANIFEST
- Would you like some buttermilk?
- Yes, please!
- LITTLE FOOD
- Americans migrated far and wide during the Great Depression. When they couldn't make a living where they were, they packed up and moved to a new region. Some people moved every few months when the seasonal jobs changed. Others joined the thousands of hobos who had no home at all and slept in forests, boxcars, and kind strangers' homes.
- Abilene and her friends are constantly hungry. Most days, Abilene gets pork and beans to eat, but she is happy to eat anything, including frog legs! Abilene, Lettie, and Ruthanne eagerly accept any food that is offered to them by others.
- MIGRANTS
- Abilene and Gideon are migrants. They move from town to town, jumping off the next train in search of a new place to find work and something to eat. Abilene has never known a real home until she comes to Manifest.
- From 1920-1933, the United States federal government enforced prohibition, which meant that citizens could not buy or sell alcohol. Some individual states passed laws that extended prohibition even longer. In Kansas, the sale and manufacture of alcohol was prohibited from 1881-1948. To get around the law, Americans made alcohol in illegal stills and sold it in secret bars, called speakeasies.
- Hide the liquor, Shady! The Sheriff's coming!
- PROHIBITION
- The Great Depression lasted so long that many Americans began to lose hope. Lack of jobs and opportunity left many desperate just to survive the week. Dreams of a better future came crashing down.
- When Abilene meets him in 1936, Shady runs a speakeasy from his home/church. Miss Sadie reveals that even in 1917, Shady was making his own alcohol and selling it illegally. When Jinx suggests that the townspeople make an alcoholic elixir to raise money, they fake the Spanish Flu in order to keep the sheriff out of town.
- A TOWN WITH A RICH PAST
- AND A BRIGHT FUTURE
- MANIFEST
- HOPELESSNESS
- A sense of hopelessness pervades Manifest when Abilene arrives. Even the welcome sign seems to suggest that hope is lost. Although it used to read "Manifest: a town with a rich past and a bright future," the words "and a bright future" have been shot through with bullets.
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