Vanderpool, Clare (1964-…), an American children’s author, won the 2011 Newbery Medal for her novel Moon Over Manifest (2010). The Newbery Medal is awarded annually to the author of the most distinguished contribution to American literature for children. Moon Over Manifest is Vanderpool’s first published book.
Vanderpool’s novel centers on 12-year-old Abilene Tucker. The story takes place during the Great Depression. The Great Depression was a worldwide economic slump that occurred during the 1930’s. One summer, Abilene’s father sends her to live with a friend of his in Manifest, Kansas, while he works on a railroad in Iowa. While Abilene wonders whether her father will ever return for her, she solves an old local mystery with the help of several Manifest residents. Vanderpool based Manifest on Frontenac, a small town in southeastern Kansas, where her maternal grandparents lived.
Vanderpool tells her story partly through the use of letters, newspaper articles, and tales told by a fortuneteller. The Newbery committee praised Vanderpool for portraying “the importance of stories as a way for children to understand the past, inform the present, and provide hope for the future.” Vanderpool’s second novel, Navigating Early (2013), describes the adventures of two boys attending a boarding school in Maine at the end of World War II in 1945.
Clare Sander was born in on Nov. 6, 1964, in Wichita, Kansas. She graduated from Kansas Newman College (now Newman University) in Wichita in 1987 with degrees in English and elementary education. She is married to Mark Vanderpool, an engineer.
See Newbery Medal.
