M.C. Higgins, the Great

by Virginia Hamilton

Book Overview

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...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0689830742
• ISBN13: 9780689830747
• Release Date: September 1999
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers
• Length: 240 Pages
• Weight: 1.00 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 6.3" x 9.3"
• Age Range: 9 to 12 years
• Grade Range: Grades 4 to 7

Customer Reviews

Jessica's review on M.C. Higgin's the Great

I like the book M.C. Higgins the Great, because it was kind of interesting.I say it's interesting, because of M.C.being scared of the spoil heap and you know you be wanting to know whats going to happend next.Also what interest me was when M.C. and the girl were like wrestling in the woods.I liked the story a whole lot, because it was different and full of guessing what's going to happened next.

The Best Children's Book I have Ever Read

I found M.C. Higgins, The Great to be a breath-taking expirence. I absoutly loved this book. I found it to be an easy book to read butI was never bored. Virginia Hamilton is a wonderful author and I will read other books that she has written. I wish there was a sequal! I will continue to promote the greatest children's bok ever wrote, M.C. Higgins The Great, happy 25!

This is one of the best Newbery books I have read.

I have read MCHiggins the Great so many times my copy is falling apart. I've read a lot of Newbery books too, and this is one of the best. In some ways it is the best. Each time I read it, I see more. First the scene is one that will stay with you long after you close the book--the hills of Eastern Kentucky that MC walks, his house, his mountain, the pole he sits on, looking out over all these hills. Then the people are unforgettable. MC's best friend, Ben, has the most unique family you will ever meet in fiction, very strange but very loving with magical connections to nature. They are vegetarians, who live on an Appalachian family commune. The mother is a healer. MC's own family includes a mother who could be a famous folksinger if she wanted to leave home, a father who is tied to the hills because his own mother, a ghostly presence in the book, owned the mountain where they lived. She was an ex-slave, and her courage has seeped into MC. He must save his f! amily from a heap of soil that is threatening to bury his home and family, because of stripmining interests in the area, and he does at last find the way to do this. But not before he has a lot of fun chasing a girl who isn't going to be caught, hunting rabbits, swimming, listening to a city "dude" who wants to make his mother a star and imagining what this would be like, visiting his best friend's family, taking care of his spunky and sassy little sister, and sitting on his pole watching the world and trying to find his place in it. This book was written 25 years ago, but it is timeless. It's about teen feelings and finding your identity. It's about father and son conflicts and teen romance. It's about nature and the environment. Most of all, it's about family heritage, and taking a stand for what you believe in. Newbery books are for everyone--people of all ages, colors, regions, genders, cultures. And this is a classic Newbery --it's a rainbow of ideas an! d experiences, with a pot of gold waiting on the last page.