M.C. Higgins, The Great by Virginia Hamilton (author) (US edition)

As a huge slag heap, the result of strip mining, creeps closer to his house in the Ohio hills, fifteen-year-old M.C. Higgins is torn. Should he try to get his family away – or stay and fight for the land he loves? If the mountain of rubble falls upon their house in an avalanche, it could easily destroy everything they have. But this land has been home to the Higgins family ever since the arrival of his great-grandmother, a runaway slave. Is there a way for M.C. to save his threatened homestead? And could two mysterious strangers help?

Winner of the Newbery Medal.

“Has a power that runs deeper than the coal seam snaking through M.C.’s mountain. The intensity of family bonds, the depth of rural superstition, and the grim tragedy of environmental destruction weave together in a story that is as complex as it is beautiful.” Emilie Coulter

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

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