My point with first person narration is that no matter how skillfully it’s written, it often requires the reader to willingly suspend disbelief–and I wouldn’t necessarily say that’s a weakness of first person, or that it’s inherently worse than third person. But if you start playing around with first person–the use of a distinctive, but striking voice; switches between first and third person narratives; switches between written and oral narratives–you increase the level of difficulty, and it opens up myriad possibilities for things to go wrong. I agree that MWT handled it perfectly. I’d need a second reading of MOON OVER MANIFEST to be sure that Vanderpool did, too.

Just for the record, I think your criticisms of Moon were entirely fair… I just don’t agree with them. And I definitely don’t think you needed to bring CoK into this, especially to criticize mwt’s choice of p.o.v. (which I think was note perfect). But anyway… I’ll stop for now!

On the other hand, Ned’s letters represent the actual written letters, and they appear in the book not when Abilene reads them, but spaced evenly throughout the rest of the story to infuse Ned’s story with more suspense for the reader. More strings showing here.

How is it that Miss Sadie can relate the stories of Jinx and Ned so intimately, anyway, when her identity in the 1918 narrative is concealed even from the town? I guess the town folk could have exchanged stories about the two boys in the wake of their departures, especially when the secrets come to light, but there are still moments when the two characters are not in the presence of anybody else, for example, their first meeting in the woods. How did Miss Sadie come to know that? Then, too, how is it that Shady can seamlessly pick up the 1918 narrative from Miss Sadie and hand it back again?

So while I really enjoyed the complex narrative structure of the book, I’d probably need a second reading to see whether it holds up under closer scrutiny. Even if it doesn’t, however, that doesn’t dampen my enthusiasm for the book and I think most readers are quite willing to collude with Vanderpool and simply “make it work.”

Wendy, as a member of the 2011 Newbery committee – long may it run, oh greatest group of humanage ever assembled – I agree completely with your assessment of the 4 honor books as “excellent,” my only quibble being that you are underrating them! As for Moon being a puzzling choice… well, I may be biased, but I still find it to be an amazing and captivating read, many many (many) times over! To me the setting, above all else, stands out as Moon’s most outstanding feature. Think about it: Clare actually had to build this setting twice – once in the present (Abilene’s time) and once in the past (Jinx’s time), and she more than succeeds on both counts. The story, with all of its layers and interwoven parts, comes together beautifully – so very well-plotted. The characters, as Johnathan mentioned, are drawn with fine detail, language that is beautiful and funny and heartbreaking in equal measure. I could probably go on for another few days, but (a) I’ll bore you all to death, and (b) I’ll wear out my welcome, and this is only post #2 of the new year – have to pace myself. Hurray for Heavy Medal – I’m so glad I can actually join the conversation this year!

I had several, maybe three, girls and one boy read it right after it won. I had many, many more check it out and not finish. Of the ones that finished it they all really liked it. At least that is what they told me. On the other hand, I’ve had a bunch of adults read it to great acclaim.

I think one of its deterrents is that it is fairly long for a non-fantasy book. (One of the mysteries of my job is how three or four inch fantasy books get read in droves while every other book of size is shunned.)

As of now, all three copies of Moon Over Manifest are checked out. However, I have a suspicion that it was on some required summer reading lists this year (I could swear that it was, but I looked at so many lists this summer that I hesitate to say it definitely was) and this is because of last-minute readers.