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 First edition | |
| Author | Ann Nolan Clark |
|---|---|
| Illustrator | Jean Charlot |
| Cover artist | Jean Charlot |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Children's novel, Historical fiction |
| Publisher | Viking Press |
Publication date | 1952 |
| Media type | Print (Hardback & Paperback) |
| Pages | 120 |
| ISBN | 0140309268 |
Secret of the Andes is a children's novel by Ann Nolan Clark. It won the 1953 Newbery Medal. [1]
Cusi, a modern Inca boy, leaves his home high in the Andes mountains to learn the mysterious secret of his ancient ancestors. Accompanied by his pet llama, Misti, he slowly discovers the truth about his birth and his people's ancient glory. Now he must prove himself worthy to be entrusted with the fabulous secret from the past. [2]
Secret of the Andes is historical fiction. Some events were inspired by real events in history. In reality, the Inca King (Ataulpa) at one time was held for ransom by the Spaniards. However, llamas were not a part of the ransom, and the form of the gold was primarily solid, not gold dust. [3]
Themes of Secret of the Andes include racial identity, preservation of historical cultures, adoption, animal guides, royal lineage, and the Spanish conquest and betrayal of the Incan Empire.
E. B. White's Charlotte's Web was a runner-up for the Newbery Medal the year Secret of the Andes won the award. [4] According to a 2008 article by children's literature expert Anita Silvey in the School Library Journal , one member of the Newbery committee stated that she voted for Secret of the Andes rather than Charlotte's Web "because she hadn't seen any good books about South America." Silvey further commented, "The Secret of the Andes is a good book; Charlotte's Web, the best." [5]
The John Newbery Medal, frequently shortened to the Newbery, is a literary award given by the Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC), a division of the American Library Association (ALA), to the author of "the most distinguished contributions to American literature for children". The Newbery and the Caldecott Medal are considered the two most prestigious awards for children's literature in the United States. Books selected are widely carried by bookstores and libraries, the authors are interviewed on television, and master's theses and doctoral dissertations are written on them. Named for John Newbery, an 18th-century English publisher of juvenile books, the winner of the Newbery is selected at the ALA's Midwinter Conference by a fifteen-person committee. The Newbery was proposed by Frederic G. Melcher in 1921, making it the first children's book award in the world. The physical bronze medal was designed by Rene Paul Chambellan and is given to the winning author at the next ALA annual conference. Since its founding there have been several changes to the composition of the selection committee, while the physical medal remains the same.
The Randolph Caldecott Medal, frequently shortened to just the Caldecott, annually recognizes the preceding year's "most distinguished American picture book for children". It is awarded to the illustrator by the Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC), a division of the American Library Association (ALA). The Caldecott and Newbery Medals are considered the most prestigious American children's book awards. Beside the Caldecott Medal, the committee awards a variable number of citations to runners-up they deem worthy, called the Caldecott Honor or Caldecott Honor Books.
Edward Irving Wortis, better known by the pen name Avi, is an American author of young adult and children's literature. He is a winner of the Newbery Medal and twice one of the runners-up.
Ann Nolan Clark, born Anna Marie Nolan, was an American writer who won the 1953 Newbery Medal.
Number the Stars is a work of historical fiction by the American author Lois Lowry about the escape of a family of Jews from Copenhagen, Denmark, during World War II.
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Eleanor Estes was an American children's writer and a children's librarian. Her book Ginger Pye, for which she also created illustrations, won the Newbery Medal. Three of her books were Newbery Honor Winners, and one was awarded the Lewis Carroll Shelf Award. Estes' books were based on her life in small-town Connecticut in the early 1900s.
Criss Cross is a novel by Lynne Rae Perkins that received the 2006 Newbery Medal for excellence in children's literature. It includes the character Debbie from her previous novel, All Alone in the Universe, but introduces several new characters, primarily her neighborhood friends Hector, Lenny, and Phil.
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Elizabeth Wright Enright Gillham was an American writer of children's books, an illustrator, writer of short stories for adults, literary critic and teacher of creative writing. Perhaps best known as the Newbery Medal-winning author of Thimble Summer (1938) and the Newbery runner-up Gone-Away Lake (1957), she also wrote the popular Melendy quartet. A Newbery Medal laureate and a multiple winner of the O. Henry Award, her short stories and articles for adults appeared in many popular magazines and have been reprinted in anthologies and textbooks.
The Horn Book Magazine, founded in Boston in 1924, is the oldest bimonthly magazine dedicated to reviewing children's literature. It began as a "suggestive purchase list" prepared by Bertha Mahony Miller and Elinor Whitney Field, proprietors of the country's first bookstore for children, The Bookshop for Boys and Girls. Opened in 1916 in Boston as a project of the Women's Educational and Industrial Union, the bookshop closed in 1936, but The Horn Book Magazine continues in its mission to "blow the horn for fine books for boys and girls" as Mahony wrote in her first editorial.
Gone-Away Lake is a children's novel written by Elizabeth Enright, illustrated by Beth and Joe Krush, and published by Harcourt in 1957. It was a runner-up for the annual Newbery Medal and was named to the Lewis Carroll Shelf Award list in 1970. It tells the story of cousins who spend a summer exploring and discover a lost lake and the two people who still live there.
Finders Keepers is a book written by William Lipkind and illustrated by Nicholas Mordvinoff. Released by Harcourt, it was the recipient of the Caldecott Medal for illustration in 1952.
Good Masters! Sweet Ladies! Voices from a Medieval Village is a 2007 children's book written by Laura Amy Schlitz. The book was awarded the 2008 Newbery Medal for excellence in children's literature.
Laura Amy Schlitz is an American author of children's literature. She is a librarian and storyteller at the Park School of Baltimore in Brooklandville, Maryland.
The Middle Moffat by Eleanor Estes is the second novel in the children's series known as The Moffats. Published in 1942, it was a Newbery Honor book. The title comes from Janey Moffat, who feels a little lost among her three siblings. Being neither the oldest or youngest, she decides to become the 'Middle Moffat' to help herself feel more important. The Moffats is set in small town Cranbury, Connecticut during World War I.
Anita Silvey is an American author, editor, and literary critic in the genre of children’s literature. Born in 1947 in Bridgeport, Connecticut, Silvey has served as Editor-in-Chief of The Horn Book Magazine and as vice-president at Houghton Mifflin where she oversaw children’s and young adult book publishing. She has also authored a number of critical books about children's literature, including 500 Great Books for Teens and The Essential Guide to Children's Books and Their Creators. In October 2010, she began publishing the Children's Book-A-Day Almanac online, a daily essay on classic and contemporary children's books.
Song of the Pines: A Story of Norwegian Lumbering in Wisconsin is a children's historical novel which was written by the husband and wife team of Walter and Marion Havighurst.
Alida Sims Malkus was an American writer of children's books, primarily nonfiction and historical novels "insubstantially tinged with fantasy". She was a Newbery Honor winner.
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