Moon Over Manifest by Clare Vanderpool

This was the Newbery winner for 2011, and I feel that is was a deserving choice. Abilene is a twelve-year-old girl who is sent by her father to live with his old friend in the small town of Manifest, Kansas in the summer of 1936. Prior to this Abilene had led a transitory life with her father--riding the rails and traveling between hobo camps while her father worked at odd jobs. Abilene is not entirely pleased about coming to live in Manifest. There is an air of mystery and secrets around her father's sending her there. She's not really sure why he chose to send her away or what his relationship to the town of Manifest is. And the townspeople are close-mouthed about him. Who is he?

A bullet ridden sign outside the town declares that Manifest is "a town with a past." Over the course of the summer, Abilene finds herself working hard to uncover that past. She finds old letters and trinkets, makes friends with old-timers who tell stories and in general snoops around until she finds out how she is connected to that past.

The book is told in chapters alternating between 1936, Abilene's present-day, and 1917, as she uncovers what happened that year. This book is supremely charming. I loved the flipping back in forth in time, as if from past to present, although to the modern reader, both are past. The history covered in this book is new. Manifest, although in the heart of the midwest, is a multi-ethnic town, immigrants having been drawn from all over Europe to work in the mine there. There is a real sense of community and a playfulness in 1917 Manifest that Abilene's digging helps them to recover in depression-riddled 1936. Recommended mostly for fans of historical fiction, but any eager young reader would enjoy this.

The Higher Power of Lucky by Susan Patron

Lucky is a thoughtful 10 year old girl that has seen a lot of tragedy in her short life. Her mother died two years ago and she has a father who sends money has never had the urge to meet her. Lucky's guardian is Brigitte, her father's other ex-wife, and Lucky is scared that one day she'll have enough of life in their tiny desert town and move back to Paris.

Besides Lucky's rough life, she lives in a unique place. Hard Pan is a desert town in California, population: 43. There are windstorms, snakes hiding in the dryer and inedible government cheese. Lucky's best friend is obsessed with tying knots and the only other kid in town (it seems) is another abandoned child--a 5-year-old neighbor that alternately annoys and entertains Lucky.

This was decent. I agree with the opinion that better books have won the Newbery. It was sweet and comforting. Books about abandoned kids, for kids, tend to be.

Guardians of Ga'Hoole Book 1: The Capture by Kathryn Lasky

This is the first book in the Guardians of Ga'Hoole series. It's all about OWLS! Soren is a barn owl who is kidnapped from his nest in the first few weeks of his life. He's taken to a strange place, a colony of owls hidden deep in a canyon. The owls hardly seem like owls. They have been cut off from everything that owls love, like the moon, the sky, and the hope of flying free. They eat strange foods and do strange things. Soren and his new friend Gylfie know that something evil is going on and that they have to escape. But first they'll have to do something they've never done before--fly. Can they learn without parents to help them? Will they be able to escape? Or will they fail in their first flight and be put so deep in the canyon that they'll never be free?

This book is a little like Watership Down with owls. But not nearly so enthralling. I'll probably pick up the next one, but I didn't love it so much that I'd commit to the whole series.