M.C. Higgins, the Great - 25th Edition by Virginia Hamilton (Hardcover)

About the Book

In a 25th anniversary edition, landmark Newbery Award-winning novel, "M.C. Higgins, The Great, " is reborn in a new package. As a slag heap, the result of strip mining, creeps closer to his house in the Ohio hills, 15-year-old M.C. is torn between trying to get his family away and fighting for the home they love.

Book Synopsis

Discover this transcendent middle grade masterpiece about a young black boy whose quiet rural live in the Appalachian Mountains begins to change--winner of the Newbery Medal, the National Book Award, and the Boston Globe-Horn Book Award.

Mayo Cornelius Higgins sits on his gleaming, forty-foot steel pole, towering over his home on Sarah's Mountain. Stretched before him are rolling hills and shady valleys. But behind him lie the wounds of strip mining, including a mountain of rubble that may one day fall and bury his home.

M.C. dreams of escape for himself and his family. And, one day, atop his pole, he thinks he sees it--two strangers are making their way toward Sarah's Mountain. One has the ability to make M.C.'s mother famous. And the other has the kind of freedom that M.C. has never even considered.

Review Quotes

Booklist A unique experience for mature readers.

Chicago Sun Times The style is haunting and musical, and the characters walk through the reader's mind long after the book is over.

Horn Book Magazine ...A memorable picture of a young boy's growing awareness of himself and his surroundings.

Kansas City Star You'll cheat yourself if you assume this one is only for children.

The Boston Globe Many books are described as absorbing, but this one is, truly, from its very first paragraph.

Nikki Giovanni The New York Times Book Review Virginia Hamilton has joined the forces of hope with the forces of dreams to forge a powerful story.

About the Author

The recipient of nearly every major award and honor in her field, including the 1992 Hans Christian Andersen Award, Virginia Hamilton (1934-2002) was the first African American woman to be awarded the Newbery Medal, for M.C. Higgins, the Great. Renowned as a storyteller, anthologist, and lecturer as well as a novelist, Ms. Hamilton made her home in Yellow Springs, Ohio.