One of the most respected and prolific contemporary authors of books for children and young adults, Virginia Hamilton was the first African American writer to win the prestigious John Newbery Medal, in recognition of M. C. Higgins, the Great, a novel she published in 1974. In addition to its Newbery honor, M. C. Higgins also garnered the National Book Award; its multi- award winning status would be characteristic of many of Hamilton's works. Considered challenging, literary, and thematically complex, Hamilton's books are often credited by critics with having raised the standards of American children's literature. "Few writers of fiction for young people are as daring, inventive, and challenging to read...," commented Ethel L. Heins in Horn Book. "Frankly making demands on her readers, she nevertheless expresses herself in a style essentially simple and concise."

Much of Hamilton's writing is inspired by her childhood experiences of the Great Depression in...