Mountain Born (Scott, Foresman Invitations to Personal Reading Program)

(Note: I guessed at the publication date. The copyright page states 1943 but the other books I have in this series are from the 1960's) Mountain Born is a children's book which was a Newbery Honor recipient in 1944. It is the story of the boy Peter and his little black cosset who grew to be the leader of a flock of sheep, is a true pastoral, moving with the seasons and the lives of the creatures on the mountain farm. Sheep, shepherds and their ways have changed little since David herded on the Judean hills, and they are as little different all over the world. There is a constancy to them that makes them something of a common denominator to civilization. So the story is set in no particular place, for its mountains and meadows, villages and people might be anywhere. The little boy in New England or England, Iceland or Brazil, who leads his father's sheep up to a mountain pasture and thinks long thoughts as he gazes across their fleecy backs into space, might be the Peter of Mountain Born.