Adam of the Road (Puffin Newbery Library)

Gray, Elizabeth J.

ISBN 10: 014032464X / ISBN 13: 9780140324648

Published by Puffin Books, New York, 1987

About this Item

Corners bumped, a little scuffing, text clean and unmarked. An attractive copy. A Newbery Award Book. "Eleven-year-old Adam loved to travel through the open roads of 13th century England with his father, a wandering minstrel, and his red spaniel, Nick. But when his father suddenly disappears and Nick is stolen, Adam finds himself alone searching these same roads filled with rich merchants, pilgrims with cockleshells upon their hats, farming folk driving pigs to the fair, minstrels and priests, saints and thieves -- and somewhere in the crowd his father and his dog. " Black & white illustrations. Est Level: 3rd - 8th grades.; 6¾" - 7¾" Tall.

Seller Inventory # 008187

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Adam of the Road (Puffin Newbery Library)
• Publisher: Puffin Books, New York
• Publication Date: 1987
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 014032464X
• ISBN 13: 9780140324648
• Binding: Trade Paperback
• Illustrator: Illustrated by Lawson, Robert
• Edition: 27th Edition; Twenty-Sixth Printing.
• Condition: Very Good
• Seller catalogs:
  • Children's Books: Vintage
  • Science Fiction and Fantasy
  • Children's Books: Award Winners

About this title

Synopsis

A Newbery Medal Winner

Awarded the John Newbery Medal as "the most distinguished contribution to American literature for children" in the year of its publication. "A road's a kind of holy thing," said Roger the Minstrel to his son, Adam. "That's why it's a good work to keep a road in repair, like giving alms to the poor or tending the sick. It's open to the sun and wind and rain. It brings all kinds of people and all parts of England together. And it's home to a minstrel, even though he may happen to be sleeping in a castle." And Adam, though only eleven, was to remember his father's words when his beloved dog, Nick, was stolen and Roger had disappeared and he found himself traveling alone along these same great roads, searching the fairs and market towns for his father and his dog.

Here is a story of thirteenth-century England, so absorbing and lively that for all its authenticity it scarcely seems "historical." Although crammed with odd facts and lore about that time when "longen folke to goon on pilgrimages," its scraps of song and hymn and jongleur's tale of the period seem as newminted and fresh as the day they were devised, and Adam is a real boy inside his gay striped surcoat.


"Engaging and beautifully written."—Children's Literature

About the Author

Elizabeth Janet Gray (1902–1999) was born and grew up in Philadelphia. She graduated from Bryn Mawr College, and in the years that followed, under the names Elizabeth Janet Gray and Elizabeth Gray Vining, she wrote many books for adults and children, including the Newbery Award winner Adam of the Road.   During and immediately after World War II, Elizabeth worked for the American Friends Service Committee. In 1946 she was appointed tutor to Crown Prince Akihito of Japan and later wrote the widely read Windows for the Crown Prince. She is the author of several novels and biographies and two autobiographical works.

Robert Lawson (1892–1957) received his art training at the New York School of Fine and Applied Art. His favorite medium, pen and ink, is used expressively and with detail in his black and white illustrations in The Story of Ferdinand (by Munro Leaf). In addition to illustrating many children's books, including Mr. Popper's Penguins, Lawson also wrote and illustrated a number of his own books for children. In 1940, he was awarded the Caldecott Medal for his picture book illustrations in They Were Strong and Good; and in 1944, he was awarded the Newbery Medal for his middle-grade novel Rabbit Hill.