Information Sources for Kids on Moon Over Manifest's Historical Events
1936: Abilene's story takes place during the Great Depression.
- The Library of Congress American Memory Project: http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/index.html. The project provides access to all forms of documentation of the American experience -- spoken and written word, still and moving images, sound recordings, prints and maps.
- Freedman, Russell. Children of the Great Depression. New York: Clarion Books, 2005. Freedman describes the lives of American children affected by the Great Depression, drawing on memoirs, diaries, letters, and other firsthand accounts, and using classic archival photographs as illustrations.
1918: Jinx's story takes place during World War I.
- Adams, Simon. World War I. New York: DK Publishing, 2007. This Eyewitness Book uses first-hand reports and contemporary photographs to augment descriptions of the events leading up to the war and the brutal battles of the war itself.
- Ruggiero, Adriane. World War I. New York: Benchmark Books, 2003. Presents the history of the U.S. role in World War I through excerpts from letters, newspaper articles, speeches and songs of the period.
- Schomp, Virginia. World War I. New York: Benchmark Books, 2004. Describes World War I through the letters of the people who fought it, including doughboys, sailors, flying aces and nurses.
Prohibition resulted in bootlegging.
On the national level, Prohibition lasted from 1919
to 1933, but Kansas had a statewide prohibition
between 1881 and 1948, so it was illegal to sell alcohol there during both eras covered in the novel.
to 1933, but Kansas had a statewide prohibition
between 1881 and 1948, so it was illegal to sell alcohol there during both eras covered in the novel.
- Blumenthal, Karen. Bootleg: Murder, Moonshine and the Lawless Years of Prohibition. New York: Roaring Book Press, 2011. Filled with period art and photographs, anecdotes, and portraits of memorable characters from the era, this book looks at the rise and fall of Prohibition.
- Rebman, Renee C. Prohibition. San Diego: Lucent Books, 1999. Discusses why Prohibition was enacted, its effects on the nation, its connection with criminal activity, and its repeal.
The Ku Klux Klan attacked immigrants as well as blacks, Catholics and Jews.
- Bartoletti, S.C. They Called Themselves the K.K.K.: The Birth of an American Terrorist Group. New York: Houghton Mifflin, 2010. Uses primary sources, from congressional testimony to diaries, to show the evolution of the Ku Klux Klan and the social changes that led to its formation.
- Heinrichs, Anne. The Ku Klux Klan. Chanhassen, Minn: Child's World, 2003. Briefly introduces the origins, history, actions, and impact of the hate group that targets a wide range of ethnic, religious and cultural groups.
The mining industry has a long history of unfair labor practices.
- Bartoletti, Susan. Growing Up in Coal Country. New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1996. Combines archival material, photography and oral history to describe the working conditions and children's experiences of coal mining families in Pennsylvania at the turn of the 20th century.
- Stanley, Jerry. Big Annie of Calumet. New York: Crown Publishers, 1996. The story of Annie Clemenc and the 1913 strike by copper miners employed by the Calumet and Hecla Mining Company in upper Michigan.
The 1918 Spanish Flu Pandemic
- Kupperberg, Paul. The Influenza Pandemic of 1918-1919. New York: Chelsea House Publishers, 2008. Discusses the outbreak and worldwide spread of the deadly Spanish flue of 1918, methods of treating it, and efforts to study the killer virus.
- Peters, Stephanie True. The 1918 Influenza Pandemic. New York: Benchmark Books, 2005. Describes the 1918 influenza epidemic, from how World War I spread the disease to recent scientific efforts to understand the virus that took between twenty and forty million lives worldwide.