Van Loon was a Dutch/American historian. His The Story of Mankind, a history of the world especially for children won the first Newbery Medal in 1922. Van Loons writing style is full of antidotes and a casual delivery suited to young readers. The Amazon.com review is as follows. "Anyone who can chronicle world history from 500,000 B.C. to present times--and do so in a lively, entertaining style--deserves a medal. Luckily, the bestowers of the very first Newbery Medal in 1922 thought so, too. The warm, personable tone of Hendrik Willem van Loons writing lends itself to true learning in a...