From BookJive
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| Edition: | Peter Smith Publisher Inc (Hardcover) |
| Author: | Ann Nolan Clark |
| Published: | |
| Pages: | 0 |
| ISBN 10: | 084467172X |
| New: | $38.94 (1) |
| Used: | $38.94 (6) |
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Secret of the Andes is a novel by Ann Nolan Clark that won the 1953 Newbery Medal. As the title suggests, the story is set in the hidden valleys of Andes mountains where great secrets of cultural and personal identities.
Book Summary
The main character of the book is Cusi, a young Incan boy who grew up in the hidden valleys of Andes Mountains in Peru. Cusi has a guardian named Chuto who is the only person he has known all his life. Even though Peru's present culture is prevalently Spanish, Chuto raised Cusi in the traditional Incan fashion teaching him Incan culture and religion.
Together with Chuto, Cusi raised and bred llamas in Andes Mountains. Cusi never left the mountains and it's only Chuto who always go down to the city market to barter the wool sheared from the llamas every year.
When an Incan family moved to live below the mountains, Cusi was so intrigued that he watches them almost every day in fascination thinking he also has a family of his own but he doesn't know who they are. As Cusi grow older, he began asking more about his family.
The day came when Chuto decides to let Cusi see the outside world; he sent Cusi to take the llamas to the family below the mountains. To his surprise, no one was there. Cusi came to realize he needs to find his family. He went back to Chuto and told him he'll go to Cuzco to find his family. Cusi took eight llamas with him to barter.
In Cusi's search for his family, he experienced sleeping outside Cuzco City walls because the Spanish guard doesn't want to let his llamas in the walls of Cuzco where he met an old man. The following day, the old man told Cusi to go and search for his family and he will take care of his llamas while he's away.
Cusi then came to meet a Spanish family where Cusi tried to fit in. The Spanish family gave him a Spanish name and tried to change his personality to be one of them. Unable to take the way the Spanish family is treating him, Cusi ran away in the middle of the night and decided to go back to the hidden valley. He went to the old man and was delighted to see that his llamas are still there!
When Cusi reached the hidden valley, Chuto is there waiting for him. It is then that he realized he does have a family in Chuto -- the father of his heart.
