Ann Nolan Clark, winner of the 1953 Newbery Medal for Secret of the Andes (1952), has spent most of her life speaking out for the needs of minority children. She has been one of the few people to write books for Indian children as well as about them, extending her creativity to magazine editing and the production of school readers, radio scripts, and braille transliterations. Her books demonstrate her awareness of cultural subtleties; her love and understanding of diverse peoples lies in capturing varied speech patterns, different types of home environment, customs, and attitudes.

She has had firsthand experience with the people about whom she writes. Research for her books has taken her to American Indian reservations, Basque villages in the Pyrenees, Ireland, Central and South America, Canada, and Finland. In her Newbery acceptance speech, she stated: "All children need understanding, but children of segregated racial groups need even more...