Moon Over Manifest is a deserving winner of the Newbery Award, however, I doubt if students will gobble it down en masse.  The historical fiction sticker on the spine of a book is akin to a sticker of death.  Then again, I have been pleased with the number of students who have enjoyed The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate (Texas 1899).  Students who enjoyed that book and books by Richard Peck should be directed to Moon Over Manifest.  It is historical fiction set in the small, fictional town of Manifest, Kansas.    Abilene and her father, Gideon, have been drifting town to town during the Depression.  One summer, her father sends Abilene to Manifest for the summer, while he takes a job elsewhere.  She spends the summer trying to figure out why it is to Manifest she was sent and who is her daddy – what is his background, his story. Readers get a snapshot of the town in 1918 sending their boys off to WWI then in 1936 struggling with the depression and Dust Bowl.  The story goes back and forth in time beautifully, revealing cons and schemes hatched and linking the generations.  This book is definitely worth the read.  The book nagged at my brain during the day – it stayed with me so that I eagerly snatched bits of time here and there to read.

Linger effect! (Linger effect means the story stayed with me long after I finished and into my next read.)