M. C. Higgins, the Great

M. C. Higgins, the Great is a book by Virginia Hamilton that won the Newbery Medal for excellence in American children's literature in 1975. It also won the National Book Award, and the Boston Globe-Horn Book Award, the only book to do that. It is a coming of age novel; it covers three eventful days in the life of teenager Mayo Cornelius Higgins. Its setting is in the Appalachian mountains on Sarah's Mountain, a fictional mountain in Kentucky near the Ohio River that is being encroached upon by a mining company. The book highlights the strange almost surreal customs of the hill people, including their traditions of song and superstition. At its core is the reconciliation M.C. must make between tradition and change.

It has been translated into many languages, including Japanese and German, and was made into a movie in 1987.