6.6 /10 1 Votes
3.3/5 Barnes & Noble Language English Pages 278 pp Originally published 1974 Genre Children's literature Country United States of America | 3.4/5 Goodreads Cover artist Leo and Diane Dillon Publication date 1974 ISBN 0-241-89214-7 Publisher Simon & Schuster | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Media type Print (hardcover & paperback) Awards John Newbery Medal, National Book Award for Children's Books Similar Virginia Hamilton books, John Newbery Medal winners, Children's literature | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
M. C. Higgins, the Great (1974) is a realistic novel by Virginia Hamilton that won the Newbery Medal for excellence in American children's literature in 1975. It also won the National Book Award in category Children's Books and the Boston Globe-Horn Book Award; it was the first book to do so, and only one other book has done so since (Holes, by Louis Sachar).
M.C. Higgins is a coming-of-age novel; it covers three eventful days in the life of teenager Mayo Cornelius Higgins. Its setting is in the Appalachian mountains on Sarah's Mountain, a fictional mountain in Kentucky near the Ohio River that is being encroached upon by a mining company. The book highlights the strange, almost surreal customs of the hill people, including their traditions of song and superstition. At its core is the reconciliation M.C. must make between tradition and change.
It has been translated into many languages, including Japanese and German, and was made into a movie in 1987.