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The King's Fifth

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3.4/5
Barnes & Noble

Language
  
English

Pages
  
272 pp (hardcover)

Originally published
  
September 1966

Genre
  
Children's literature

Publisher
  
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

3.6/5
Goodreads

Country
  
United States

Publication date
  
September 1966

OCLC
  
301963

Author
  
Scott O'Dell

ISBN
  
0-395-06963-7

Awards
  
John Newbery Medal

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Media type
  
Print (Hardcover, Paperback)

Similar
  
Scott O'Dell books, John Newbery Medal winners, Children's literature

The King's Fifth (1966) is a children's historical novel by Scott O'Dell that was the inspiration for the cartoon TV series The Mysterious Cities of Gold. It describes, from the point of view of a teenage Spanish Conquistador, how the European search for gold in the New World of the Americas affected people's lives and minds.

Contents

Plot summary

The story takes place in a time when the Spanish adventurers known as Conquistadors roamed the New World of the Americas in search of the mythical gold treasures of the dethroned Native Americans.

Characters

  • Estéban de Sandoval - a teenage mapmaker to the expedition
  • Zia Troyano - a younger teenage Native American guide
  • Captain Blas de Mendoza (very loosely based on Antonio de Mendoza) - an aristocrat in search of gold
  • Father Francisco - a priest to the expedition who joined as a missionary and an explorer
  • Roa and Zuñiga - part of a trio of musicians who are Mendoza's cronies

    • TV series

    The book was the inspiration for the 1982-1983 french cartoon TV series "Les Mystérieuses Cités d'or (The Mysterious Cities of Gold). The characters take their names from the book, the high-level quest is the same, and the "golden lake" scene from the book is also present in the cartoon, but the similarities end there (the cartoon has motifs of fantasy and science fiction). The cartoon is set in South America, whereas the expedition in the book explores California, in North America.

    Matching characters

  • Esteban - main character and is the map maker of the group and he becomes imprisoned for 3 years for hiding the gold and not giving the king his fifth share.
  • Zia - an Inca 13year old, kidnapped to and then from Spain,she then is the group translator and speaks six different languages
  • Mendoza - a wily adventurer who arrived in the Americas by becoming a navigator on the ship to the New World to find gold in the seven cities
  • Father Francico - he doesn't really have a role in the group just one for extra ed vice and then he gives the blessing to others and is mainly a missionary.
  • Zuniga and Roa - a comedy duo who are Mendoza's cronies. They also are his musicians and are just mad gold crazy as their leader..

    • Choose Your Own Adventure book

    The book is also a slight influence in the Choose Your Own Adventure Time Machine's 1987 book Quest for the Cities of Gold, as the reader meets Esteban at different points.

    Awards and nominations

  • Newbery Honor Book, 1967
  • Federal Republic of Germany Jugendbuchpreis, 1970

    • References

    The King's Fifth Wikipedia
    (Text) CC BY-SA