The Voice That Challenged a Nation: A Newbery Honor Award Winner

Newbery Honor Book * Sibert Medal Winner

Carefully researched and expertly told, this Newbery Honor and Sibert Medal-winning book is a moving account of the life of a talented and determined artist who left her mark on musical and social history. Through her story, Newbery Medal-winning author Russell Freedman illuminates the social and political climate of the day and an important chapter in American history. Notes, bibliography, discography, index.

"A voice like yours," celebrated conductor Arturo Toscanini told contralto Marian Anderson, "is heard once in a hundred years."

This insightful account of the great African American vocalist considers her life and musical career in the context of the history of civil rights in this country. Drawing on Anderson's own writings and other contemporary accounts, Russell Freedman shows readers a singer pursuing her art despite the social constraints that limited the careers of black performers in the 1920s and 1930s.

Though not a crusader or a spokesperson by nature, Marian Anderson came to stand for all black artists—and for all Americans of color—when, with the help of such prominent figures as Eleanor Roosevelt, she gave her landmark 1939 performance on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, which signaled the end of segregation in the arts.

AWARDS

 ALA Notable Children’s Book

 Bank Street Children’s Best Books of the Year

 Book Links Lasting Connection

 Bulletin Blue Ribbon (The Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books)

 Carter G. Woodson Book Award

 Dorothy Canfield Fisher Children’s Book Award (Vermont)

 Horn Book Fanfare

 Kirkus Reviews Editors’ Choice

 New York Public Library's “One Hundred Titles for Reading and Sharing”

 Newbery Honor Book

 Notable Children's Trade Book in the Field of Social Studies (NCSS/CBC)

 Notable Children’s Book in the Language Arts (NCTE)

 Orbis Pictus Award Honor Book (NCTE)

 Parents' Choice Silver Honor

 School Library Journal Best Book

 Bank Street Children's Best Books of the Year